Very important statement there on political economy. I've always asked a hypothetical - suppose under one policy, incomes for the top 20% grow by 10% and the rest by 1%. Under a different policy, all incomes grow by 2%. Which policy would get enacted from an efficiency perspective, which policy would get enacted from a voting perspective?
The latter question depends on trust in the government to redistribute.
For an extensive account of 'government' and how societies organise the recent book 'The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity' by David Graeber, and David Wengrow is recommended.
Very important statement there on political economy. I've always asked a hypothetical - suppose under one policy, incomes for the top 20% grow by 10% and the rest by 1%. Under a different policy, all incomes grow by 2%. Which policy would get enacted from an efficiency perspective, which policy would get enacted from a voting perspective?
The latter question depends on trust in the government to redistribute.
I explored a closely related hypothetical in my post Equity vs. growth (https://nzae.substack.com/p/equity-vs-growth) - Dave
For an extensive account of 'government' and how societies organise the recent book 'The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity' by David Graeber, and David Wengrow is recommended.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_of_Everything has a summary of the book and of critiques of it.