Economic Equality Is Impossible

J. Paul Getty makes a very enlightening case in his autobiography that humans will never be economically equal.

One of his arguments is that nature itself is unequal. Think about it, animals, plants, you name it, there's no equality out there. And the same seems to go for humans too.

He further argues that if you were to distribute all the wealth on earth equally at 3:00pm in the afternoon, by 3:30pm there would already be inequities. Some would have gambled it away. Others would have been swindled out of it, thereby making others richer. After a month it would have even further deteriorated and the increase in inequity would proceed at an exponential rate. This would continue and after a year to two, a pattern almost identical to the pattern of inequality that existed before would once again prevail.

Therefore, he argues, it doesn't matter which economic system you have, capitalism, socialism, or anything in between, the outcome will be the same: economic inequality. If true, then capitalism clearly gets a bad rap. Capitalism can't therefore be the cause of inequality -- it's human nature.

I think he's right.

-Forsyth