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Problems against Symptoms: Economic Democracy and Inequality – Items

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In the latest contribution to our “What is Inequality?” series, Suresh Naidu argues that the recent focus on income redistribution as a remedy for inequality can distract from more fundamental limitations to the liberty of workers as economic actors. Naidu explores the nature of the labor contract in capitalist economies and other constraints on “economic democracy,” and suggests reforms that would make unions more effective in addressing these constraints. Goodhart’s law states that “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” This is what I think might be happening with the distribution of income or wealth. Economists, in particular, have a singular focus on the density plots and time-series graphs measuring income inequality, but sometimes we miss the underlying problems of which inequality is a symptom. When focused on inequality as the target of our interventions, we might emphasize solutions like guest worker programs, means-tested transfers, or private-sect

What Is Inequality? Problems against Symptoms: Economic Democracy and Inequality In the latest contribution to our “ What is Inequality? ” series, Suresh Naidu argues that the recent focus on income redistribution as a remedy for inequality can distract from more fundamental limitations to the liberty of workers as economic actors. Naidu explores the nature of the labor contract in capitalist economies and other constraints on “economic democracy,” and suggests reforms that would make unions more effective in addressing these constraints. by Suresh Naidu September 6, 2016 Print Goodhart’s law

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