Address Poverty First

Economist Tyler Cowen’s recent New York Times article on incomes and inequality in America is both interesting to read and relevant to some of the issues we face. Particularly, his concluding paragraph resonates well with the urgent need for Malaysia to change her archaic motivation in implementing socio-economic policies:

“The broader philosophical question is why we should worry about inequality — of any kind — much at all. Life is not a race against fellow human beings, and we should discourage people from treating it as such. Many of the rich have made the mistake of viewing their lives as a game of relative status. So why should economists promote this same zero-sum worldview? Yes, there are corporate scandals, but it remains the case that most American wealth today is produced rather than taken from other people.

What matters most is how well people are doing in absolute terms. We should continue to improve opportunities for lower-income people, but inequality as a major and chronic American problem has been overstated.”

Equality? How about Equality in Poverty?

Elanor