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I don't understand why inequality is inherently bad. It seems fine to me. Force is bad, and sometimes inequality is created through force - but inequality is not *in and of itself* bad. I often (not always) interpret people who dislike inequality as envious and dissatisfied.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Apr 29, 2020

I often hear people talking about inequality without acknowledging that the bottom poorest percentages have been doing the best by several metrics then they have throughout the rest of human history. But no, not good enough - other people are doing even better and that's not ok.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Again to clarify - in the cases where force is used (and there are a LOT of these, mostly by the government) this can significantly increase inequality, and thus inequality is a sign of oppression of the lower class. This "inequality-by-force" is definitely bad.

11:15 PM · Apr 29, 2020

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It makes no sense to say that a system that's a binary choice between working or starving isn't predicated on force

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since when in the entirety of human history, down to our primal ancestors, did creatures not have to exert work in order to eat?

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Cathy Reisenwitz (51/100 sketches)

@CathyReisenwitz

Apr 29, 2020

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@Aella_Girl

I hear people talking about how “the poor are doing better than ever” way more often than I hear about how the government redistributes wealth upwards. I wonder who benefits from that 🤔

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I hear people say the government redistributes wealth upwards but also don't the top 1% in America pay like 60% of the total taxes or something absurd?

Elijah Ravitz-Campbell

@ElijahRavitz

Apr 29, 2020

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@Aella_Girl

The most clear moral objection to inequality is that in the world we live in extreme inequality implies that many live in poverty. Poverty = bad -> inequality = bad. This is not the only objection but if your looking for a place to start it seems like a good one.

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imagine you were hideous, very dim, and a member of a visible minority. and an orphan. would you deserve any less empathy than anyone else?

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Isn’t all inequality based on force - ie. I cannot just take what resources I need, or want, because the state will use force against me? That threat of state force lies behind all laws regarding resources, property rights etc. which underpin our current system.

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"Inequality" isn't a useful word. What does it even mean? At what point has equality been achieved? Obviously perfect equality of outcome is undesirable, see Harrison Bergeron. So "equality" means "more equal than where we are now", and that threshold is different for everyone.

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People a fantasy about what things ‘should’ be. They are mostly made we live in an imperfect world. They should be mad at Eve for eating the fruit and brought an end to paradise.

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Coming form an imperialist country where the wealth gap is larger than almost all other countries, inequality results in people working 40 hours and still needing to go to a food bank or needing to go get a loan to pay for fuel to go to work I dislike inequality