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September 26, 2006

Comments

Inequality

So inequality in the global economy can be reduced by trading with Mars?

james higham

Your comments section on this post is only for economists, I realize and yet I have a question.

...Ricardo showed how those individuals whom, for whatever reason, start out with the best land, inevitably end up owning most of the land, and thus holding great economic power over the rest of population...

Aren't the crucial words here 'for whatever reason'? What reason, I'd like to know.

chris

Quite, James. Ricardo was silent on this matter. Needless to say, Marx wasn't. Chs 26-29 here give his views:
http://www.ecn.bris.ac.uk/het/marx/cap1/index.htm
This is not to mention the Levellers, of course.
Inequality - it depends what Mars' specialities were. I reckon that, were we to ever trade with another planet, its exports would be hugely skill-intensive. That could reduce relative wages of skilled workers here, couldn't it?
Of course, there are other ways of reducing inequality in the nearer-term.
Hey fellas, the post was about Ricardo, not a general theory of inequality.

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