Welcome friends!
I’d really like to take a break from economic themes but I had another thought along those lines recently, so maybe I should get that out of the way first. My thought was that perhaps I’m being a little too vague and abstract when I talk about distributional issues. You know, if one has a passing acquaintance with neoclassical economic theory, as almost every educated person does these days, one can easily get the impression that what economists call distributional issues are just random and ethically unjustifiable preferences for some people over others. That’s because the issues that underlie distributional concerns are typically not discussed within the framework of economic theory. In reality, what we’re calling distributional issues includes whatever one believes is relevant to the question of what an economic system should allocate to who, including for example merit (however one cares to define it), rights, and utility. It’s a pretty big category, but as luck would have it I read something the other day that provides me a good opportunity to get a little more specific about the types of things I think represent important distributional issues. Funny how that happens, isn’t it? Anyway, this particular article was about some guy in France who killed himself by setting himself on fire. (Sorry to break the jocular mood, but that’s what happened. Rest in peace my brother.) So what’s that tragic situation got to do with what I consider to be distributional issues? Well, quite a bit it turns out... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website. All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee. Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right? If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then. Thank you my friends!
