Thoma on Capitalism, Inequality, Social Insurance, and Growth

From Mark Thoma writing in the Fiscal Times,

"Why is rising inequality a matter that our social insurance system should address? The idea behind insurance is to spread the costs of harmful events we cannot control across a large number of people. With fire insurance, for example, participants pool their money into a large sum, and the unlucky few that experience fires draw from the pool of money to cover their losses. In the end there is a redistribution of income from the winners who escape a fire to the unfortunate who don’t, but it would be wrong to view this as a net cost to the winners. The insurance premiums buy protection from fire – a benefit – and presumably the benefit exceeds the cost of the insurance.   

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At some point, one I believe we’ve passed already, the benefits of inequality in terms of incentives are surpassed by the costs. As Joseph Stiglitz argues, “Inequality leads to lower growth and less efficiency. Lack of opportunity means that its most valuable asset – its people – is not being fully used. Many at the bottom, or even in the middle, are not living up to their potential, because the rich, needing few public services and worried that a strong government might redistribute income, use their political influence to cut taxes and curtail government spending. This leads to underinvestment in infrastructure, education, and technology, impeding the engines of growth.”"