ECON 10a Chapter Notes - Chapter 20: Social Insurance, Negative Income Tax, Robert Nozick
12 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Income inequality and poverty pages 413 432: the measurement of inequality, u. s. income inequality and the poverty rate, data on the distribution of income show a wide disparity in u. s. society. The richest fifth of families earns more than twelve times as much income as the poorest fifth: poverty rate is the percentage of the population whose family income falls below an absolute level called the poverty line. Utilitarians (such as john stuart mill) would choose the distribution of income to maximize the sum of utility of everyone in society. Liberals (such as john rawls) would determine the distribution of income as if we were behind a. Veil of ignorance that prevented us from knowing our stations in life. Libertarians (such as robert nozick) would have the government enforce individual rights to ensure a fair process but then not be concerned about inequality in the resulting distribution of income.
