The Task

Abstract

Chapter 1 introduces the main question of the book: What is a fair income distribution? The empirical literature seems to assume that equal income would be fair. Consider, for example, the Gini coefficient. The reason researchers report the deviation from equality is presumably because they take equal income to have normative significance. Yet the equal income answer faces two objections. First, equal income is likely to be inefficient. This book sets aside efficiency concerns as a downstream consideration. The second objection—pointed out by both leftist political philosopher G. A. Cohen and conservative economist Milton Friedman—is that equal income is unfair to the hardworking. The question that needs answering, then, is: If equal income is unfair, what distribution of income would be fair?