Is There a Real Problem With Income and Equality?

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Some people believe that echomic growth has not been shared widely over the last forty years. Do you think we should devote our policy space to bringing up people at the bottom, rather than improving the economy as a whole? Ah, neither. It seems to me that what both people on both sides of the debate are missing is the social meaning of the inequality. And i do think that's been shifting and racter over time.

Author, economist, and theologian Mary Hirschfeld of Villanova University talks about her book, Aquinas and the Market, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Hirschfeld looks at the nature of our economic activity as buyers and sellers and whether our pursuit of economic growth and material well-being comes at a cost. She encourages a skeptical stance about the ability of more stuff to produce true happiness and/or satisfaction. The conversation includes a critique of economic theory and the aspect of human satisfaction outside the domain of economists.