The Ancient Curse of Inequality

Six years ago, Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now was a runaway bestseller. Though stuffed with references to figures like David Hume and Immanuel Kant, it was sold in airport bookstores along with the latest offerings from Bob Woodward and Stephen King. In a chapter on inequality, the Harvard psychologist described “the second decade of the 21st century” as a time when “economic inequality has become an obsession.” He cited Pope Francis, Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump, all of whom seemed to assume in one way or another that rising inequality was a problem. Pinker was puzzled by this “obsession.” Perhaps, he speculated, these critics were mixing up inequality with some distinct concept like poverty.