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- Which country appears to have the most egalitarian distribution of income?
Sweden exhibits the most egalitarian distribution of income in this group of nations.
- Which country appears to have the most lopsided distribution of income?
Brazil exhibits the most lopsided distribution of income in this group of nations.
- What forces or factors might plausibly contribute to a lopsided distribution of income within a national economy?
There are many reasons why distribution of income may diverge from perfect equality:
- Laws may permit some people to own a larger stake than others in the means of production, and may grant them ownership rights to more of the revenue generated.
- The system may reward people according to how much they produce, and some people are invariably more productive than others. Small children and the elderly typically do not contribute as much to national economic production as men and women of working age. People who can read typically produce at higher rates than people who lack such education. Healthy people typically produce more than people who are undernourished or sick.
- Laws and regulations may manipulate income distribution through fees, fines or taxation in order to provide incentives for desired behavior, or to redistribute wealth to address perceived needs.
Is an even distribution of income the same thing as a fair distribution of income? Why or why not?
(The intention behind this question is to get students thinking about the values that underlie different economic systems. In market systems, for example, it seems "fair" to reward people in proportion to their productivity. As noted above, people are not all equally productive. Command systems on the other hand, typically try to redistribute value in answer to need. In both these cases, a "fair" distribution of reward is not going to be an equal distribution. The point is not to "bless" a particular system, but to point out that there are arguments to be made both for and against alternatives.)
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