Death For Everyone Before Inequality For Anyone
I was just talking about the "inequality for any is worse than death for all" meme over at Fight Aging!, though the definitive examination is back somewhat further in the archives. Here is another example, via Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, demonstrating that the "death for all" school of thought is sadly thriving: "longevity and immortality research exhibits the same discourse problems as the other new and emerging technology discourses, namely that [it] makes light of potential and real social risks that it tailors to a minority of the world and ignores the marginalized majority of the world." I see this sort of viewpoint - that we should block progress at the speartip while the hindmost are brought up to par - as a fundamental misconception of economics and human nature. Equality is the mirage that leads to death in the desert. The world works this way in reality: we can labor and trade to move everyone ahead, benefits for all and inequalities for all, or we can redistribute what presently exists - which at best leads to stagnation and no progress, and at worst becomes a repetition of Soviet era Russia and Eastern Europe. In both cases, inequality will exist - you can't kill it. The choice is between open inequality in comparative and advancing wealth or painful inequality in stagnant, deteriorating poverty, disease and rubble.