Income Inequality: Is It Fair or Unfair?

The Yale Federalist Society presents a conversation and Q&A on income inequality. Is it fair or unfair? We hear that the gap between the poor and the rich has widened. Many decry the injustice of income and wealth inequality. But is it actually a problem and are the proposed remedies truly just? What is a fair “distribution” of income and wealth?

Professor Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at the Yale Law School, and Yaron Brook, executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute, debate these and related issues. Markovits argues in favor of finding state and societal solutions to reduce this income gap and Brook argues that a genuinely laissez-faire capitalist society is the only system of fairness.

Featuring:

Dr. Yaron Brook
Executive Chairman
Ayn Rand Institute
Author, "Equal Is Unfair"
https://twitter.com/yaronbrook

Prof. Daniel Markovits
Guido Calabresi Professor of Law
Yale Law School
Author, "Snowball Inequality"

TIMECODES:

Introductions 0:00:14

Dr. Yaron Brook
Opening Remarks 0:02:54
1st Response 0:33:05
Final Remarks 1:21:09

Prof. Daniel Markovits
Opening Remarks 0:18:14
1st Response 0:41:22
Final Remarks 1:24:26

Transition to Q&A 0:46:20

First Question 0:46:33
TWO OR THREE POLICY SUGGESTIONS

Second Question 0:54:24
WHAT ABOUT SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUPS?

Third Question 1:00:50
ARE IP RIGHTS COLLECTIVIST RIGHTS?

Fourth Question 1:06:27
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AMBITION/DRIVE & HUMAN FLOURISHING

Fifth Question 1:12:46
ECONOMIC MOBILITY

As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.