What Distribution of Wealth Would Be Fair?

Most people agree that the distribution of wealth in the United States is less equal than it should be, and many have suggested ways to achieve fairer distributions, but not many have taken on the task of explaining how fairer distributions can be sustained over long periods. Just as the New Deal reforms have been and are being undermined today, new measures that would emulate them also could be undermined. This paper presents three ideas for sustaining fairer distributions of wealth. First, it suggests using a modified Pareto (power law) formula to define wealth distributions and solicit consensus on the features of fair distributions. Second, it endorses the idea of implementing wealth taxes and suggests that public support for wealth taxes might be secured by combining them with direct transfers of tax proceeds to less-wealthy households. Third, it introduces a new method for strengthening political accountability–a web-based system that would link residents in local communities for the purpose of publishing and reviewing each other’s candidate endorsements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]