Inequality and Social Justice

The brilliant Will Wilkinson has a newish paper out--Thinking Clearly about Economic Inequality, arguing that consumption statistics mean more than income statistics, in measuring economic inequality. (Consumption inequality proves less marked than income inequality.) Wilkinson interestingly calls into question conventional normative analyses relating to economic inequality, arguing against evaluating a country's social justice by looking at its Gini coefficient [while noting that the USA and Ghana currently rank similarly, in income inequality]. Will and Ezra Klein discuss the paper here, Klein responds in print here, Megan McArdle here.