![]() The point is made with greater nuance by the philosopher Harry Frankfurt in his 2015 book On Inequality. The point of the joke, of course, is that the two peasants have become more equal but that neither is better off, aside from Igor’s indulging his spiteful envy. Igor says, “I wish that Boris’s goat should die.” One day a fairy appears to Igor and grants him a wish. The only difference between them is that Boris owns a scrawny goat. Igor and Boris are dirt-poor peasants, barely scratching enough crops from their small plots of land to feed their families. ![]() The reason is captured in an old joke from the Soviet Union. It is not like health, prosperity, knowledge, safety, peace, and the other areas of progress I examine in these chapters. The starting point for understanding inequality in the context of human progress is to recognize that income inequality is not a fundamental component of well-being. ![]()
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