4 Comments
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Tiziano Leone's avatar

But what if the original low spread in Italy's (and West's in general) income distribution vs world's income distribution was just a by-product of the exploitation of the rest of the world? The dominance on the global stage could allow the redistribution to consolidate power from an internal politics POV. We observe China catching up since it started vey far, that their recipe would be successful in the future is another matter. Maybe a high-redistribution approach is not competitve on the global stage, at least the relative decline of the influence of european nations with respect to the US seems a hint in that direction

Simone Campisi's avatar

How anyone can believe that the solution to inequality could have been "more transfers", given the scale of our current transfers, is beyond me. I do not refute the main thesis, status signals are powerful, but the counterfactual Is weak

Benson's avatar

I do not know in which country you live, but my country, the US, should transfer much more of its income to children and the poor in order to reach the low poverty rates of the Nordic countries.

Alex Campolo's avatar

I am not sure "transfers" captures what is being described here. It is rather about a more fundamental, ideological orientation of the state's relationship to its elites. China has answered the "Who serves who?" one way, the west another.