Is income inequality bad?

The rich are getting richer, but the world is a healthier, wealthier, and safer place than it has been in the history of humanity. Why should it matter if a hedge fund manager just built a 50,000-square-foot house? When we think about well-being, we can't just think about wealth. read more

New evidence suggests that living in a community with high income inequality also seems to be bad for your health. A study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute examined a series of risk factors that help explain the health (or sickness) of counties in the United States. read more

American cities with the most income inequality include some of our largest, such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington D.C., and Miami. New York City is the ninth most unequal city on the planet. International cities with similar levels of income inequality include Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nairobi, Kenya, and Santiago, Chile. read more

Still on both of these views what's bad about inequality is that it's a sign of potentially foregone opportunity to raise the absolute living standards of the less-fortunate. There are also various efforts to demonstrate that inequality per se is a cause of problems. read more