Preview

should wealthy nations share their with poorer nations

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
354 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
should wealthy nations share their with poorer nations
Logo Springer Search Options
Sign up / Log in English Academic edition
Skip to: Main content Side column
Home
Contact Us Download PDF (121 KB)
Public Choice
September 2003, Volume 116, Issue 3-4, pp 351-366
Eating the Rich vs. Feeding the Poor: Borrowing Constraints and the Reluctance to Redistribute
Philipp Harms, Stefan Zink
2 Citations
Download PDF (121 KB)
Abstract
This paper offers an explanation why most democracies arecharacterized by moderate taxation of wealth although thewealth distribution is persistently skewed to the right. Wemodel an economy in which agents have to acquire highereducation to qualify for skilled work and in which capitalmarket imperfections prevent poor individuals from making sucha profitable human capital investment. If these borrowingconstraints do not bind for members of the middle class, theymay rationally reject redistribution although both the currentand the future median of the wealth distribution are below themean. Close
Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

Page 12
Loading...
Page 13
Loading...
Page 14
Loading...
Page 15
Loading...
Page 16
Loading...
Download PDF (121 KB)
Public ChoicePublic Choice Look
Inside
Other actions

Export citation
Register for Journal Updates
About This Journal
Reprints and Permissions
Add to Papers
Share

Share this content on Facebook Share this content on Twitter Share this content on LinkedIn

Related Content Supplementary Material (0)
References (13)

About this Article
Title
Eating the Rich vs. Feeding the Poor: Borrowing Constraints and the Reluctance to Redistribute
Journal
Public Choice
Volume 116, Issue 3-4 , pp 351-366

Cover Date
2003-09-01
DOI
10.1023/A:1024862825446
Print ISSN
0048-5829
Online ISSN
1573-7101
Publisher
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Additional Links
Register for Journal Updates
Editorial Board
About This Journal
Manuscript

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Econ Ch 2

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages

    7. If a government imposes a larger income tax on the wealthy, will this lead to more or less income inequality? What impact would this tax be likely to have on overall economic growth?…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    AVERBACH, CARD, QUIGLEY, A. J. D. J. M. (2006). Public Policy and the Income Distribution. Retrieved from https://www.russellsage.org/publications/public-policy-and-income-distribution…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    initial counseling

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Job Description: As a 91H in the S&R shop you are required to maintain the sections assigned M88 to be fully mission capable at all times. I need you to keep me up to date on the status of the vehicle at all times. If anything goes wrong with the vehicle, it will be your sole mission to repair any fault it has. When a service is due on the M88 you will conduct the service on time and to standard. I also need you to stay proficient in the cross-training you've had on wheel vehicles. When they have issues or need servicing I may require you to keep our wheeled vehicles to standard also. I will not tolerate substandard performance with the maintenance of our vehicles.…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The richest Americans hold nearly 90 percent of the total household wealth in the country” (Mantsios 380). That leaves a mere ten percent to be distributed among the rest of the population, this is a wide margin considering less than half the population holds the nation’s wealth. A wealth more evenly split would see a greater impact on those who would benefit most, those suffering who need more financial security. The middle class, a population keen on imitating the rich, would require the average worker making a salary of “$49,455 (the median income in the United States)” over “2,500 lifetimes to earn $10 billion”, which more than 70 of the 1,000 billionaires living in the United States are worth (Mantsios 380). The wealth of the nation is so unevenly distributed that many Americans are suffering, yet no improvements have been made.…

    • 1501 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wealth Inequality in U.S.

    • 1964 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Over the last decade, income inequality has become one of the most important issues in the U.S. and a subject of a lot of debate. There is a prevalent idea in the society that the wealth inequality in United States is currently at the highest level in the history after steadily raising for a number of decades. The financial crisis is said to have contributed to this significant gap between the top 1% and everybody else. People view it as an inherently negative thing, and fight hard to promote the equality and income redistribution. This paper examines the causes of inequality; the relationship between wealth inequality and economic growth and the hypothesis on how policy measures can be designed to mitigage the income disparity both in U.S. and in the rest of the world. The researh is based on the theory that inequality is an essential aspect of an efficient free market economy that adversely affects economic growth when in excess.…

    • 1964 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Redistributive policies are more difficult to enact when they involve the real location of money, rights or power. Those who possess money or power already, tend to shift their political realm more in their favor. In other words, the usual pattern of the redistribute policy shifts more on the concern of resources for those “who have” and those “who have not.”…

    • 1887 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the days of Beowulf, heroic characteristics have changed slightly. However, some qualities have stood the test of time. It is still considered heroic to sacrifice oneself for the betterment of others, while prowess in battle is no longer considered heroic. Another quality no longer considered heroic is to have pride in your actions. Lastly, standing up as a leader for others is still considered heroic.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A lot of people have different ideas of how our nation will succeed. One big idea that people continue to argue about is how our economy should be played out. It's either a good idea to give to the poor to make things fair, or keep your money to yourselves, or maybe it's a good idea to put a cap on the population so we don't have to give to the poor. I believe that we shouldn’t give to the poor because they will use our givings in a negative way, which would make us regret doing goods. Some people such as William Hogarth support the idea of not giving to the poor because they will use their money on something that they shouldn't be. William Hogarth painted a picture which was called "Gin Lane" to support his ideas. Some people such as Thomas Malthus and Garrett Hardin think that the population is too high to maintain a well kept economy.…

    • 2126 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 1970’s was time of great change in american politics. The hyperconcentration of rewards at the top (winner-take-all economy) is the defining feature of the post 1970’s economy. Most growth since the later 1970s has gone to the richest Americans. The statistic that the authors use to prove this is that “If the economy grew at the same right as it did but if the inequality had not increased, then the average income of households would be $12,000 higher” (24). Since 1980, America has moved away from the mixed-economy cluster and traveled towards the capitalist oligarchies (4). The authors use the study of Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez to prove the growth of economic inequality. their evidence shows that the economy has become favorable…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A crucial controversy of America today is the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor, and the discrepancy is caused by capitalism run wild and only the helping hand of the government can only fix the problem. A question that turns the tables is what if the growing wealth disparity in America is actually caused by the government? For years, the idea that inequality is economically neutral has been the prevailing view not just among traditionalists but also between most Americans outside the further reaches of a political audience. There could be ideological or moral reasons to object to a growing gap between the wealthy and the rest but for economic reasons, there are no such. Furthermore, there are many ways inequality places itself in America. In our society, a good amount of the population is forced to stand up and work for our country while hardly being redeemed for their time and effort, thus the problem of income inequality. An estimate of these people live from paycheck to another, barely coping with life itself, not because they cannot manage their money well, but the reason is that…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Income/wealth inequality in the U.S has grown rapidly over the last few decades. “Today the richest 1% own 34% of the wealth and top 10% own 74%” (Hodges). The main causes of this discrepancy are attributed to the technology boom, the need for companies to outsource production and inherence of wealth as well as company differences. Though the growing gap is alarming to Americans, it is important to remember that income and wealth inequality is an accepted result of a capitalistic economy. The whole idea of capitalism is the ability for any individual to freely develop, trade, and in turn increase their social status without government interference. By adhering to these base principles it allows us as Americans the freedoms not seen in…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Recently, a term known as income inequality has been thrown around in the debate between the rich and the poor. Income inequality is the unfair and ever expanding disparity between the nation 's highest-income households, and the lowest-income households. Although it 's impossible to establish 100% equality, due to it being unfair to give everyone the same exact income even though certain individuals work harder than others, thus it should be our nation 's goal to at least provide Americans with an equal opportunity at becoming wealthy. However, with our nation 's income inequality gap spiraling out of control, the rich are becoming richer, while the poor are becoming poorer, resulting in less opportunities for the common American to rise to the top. As of 2007, our nation 's wealthiest 1% owns 34.6% of the wealth, the top 10% owns 73.1% of the wealth, while the lower 80% owns a mere 15.1% [1]. Evidently, our nation 's wealthiest individuals have an insane amount of wealth compared to the large majority of the nation, resulting in what is known as income…

    • 1993 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The U.S. is the world’s largest donor in financial aid, while people in our country need support as well. Some of the countries that receive the most aid consider us their enemy. The most money we give is to countries in the middle east because we are trying to make them our friend, not enemy. As we are in debt and people in our country need help, we still decide to give money to countries that consider us their enemy.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are so Rich and some are so Poor, David Landes sets out to elucidate the causes of the divergent destinies of different economies. In doing so, he presents economic history as a profoundly Eurocentric anecdote. He posits that Europe's industrial revolution is the epicenter of modernity and the means of how some--largely western Europe and northwest Europe's settler ex-colonies--have grown rich. He also conceives, that relative poverty elsewhere is the result of failure on the part of political, religious, and mercantile elites elsewhere to ascend (being circumstances set heavily against them) and maintain or regain independence from and assimilate the technologies of the people from Europe--merchants, priests, and thugs with guns--who came in boats, rarely with friendly intent.…

    • 1559 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fundamentally, there are three main ways of how aid is given, they are bilateral aid (direct country to country), multilateral aid (country to World bank to country) and NGO aid (aid given by Oxfam, Red Cross etc non government organizations). Food aid could also be split into long term and short term, depending on the situation and the need.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays