Here's a scene that will be familiar to anyone who's ever taken an
introductory economics course. The professor has just finished
explaining that in economics, "efficiency" means that there are no
possible gains from trade. Then some loudmouth kid in the back raises his hand and asks: "Wait, so if one person has everything, and everyone else has nothing and just dies, is that an 'efficient' outcome?" The
professor, looking a little chagrined, responds: "Well, yes, it is." And
the whole class rolls their eyes and thinks: Economists.
For most of modern history, inequality has been a manageable problem.
The reason is that no matter how unequal things get, most people are
born with something valuable: the ability to work, to learn, and to earn
money. In economist-ese, people are born with an "endowment of human
capital." It's just not possible for one person to have everything, as
in the nightmare example in Econ 101.
-The Atlantic
