Hayeks View Of Governing Inequality - 1545 Words

Social inequality can either be considered natural and necessary as inequalities creates incentives for individuals to work harder, or it can be considered systematic, an integral feature of social order that creates winners and losers. The former view would not consider inequality a public matter, therefore does not require governing. The latter however, would consider inequality a public issue that can only be reduced by government implementing policies to so. This essay will compare and contrast Hayek’s view of governing inequality with that of Stiglitz. To Hayek, strong state intervention restricts the freedom of individuals. His concept of freedom is without coercion and he is clear that people can only be coerced by other people and not by circumstance. Those who are unemployed or those who are living in poverty do so because of the market’s function of rewarding those with certain skills and penalizing those without. For Hayek, while these people may be suffering, they are not coerced because the market is an impersonal mechanism. (Blakeley and Clarke, p. 353) It is only constraint of freedom by people that is damaging. According to him, any intervention from the state to regulate society, however well intentioned the motives, will inevitably lead to coercive government, and ultimately a loss of freedom. Hayek views inequality as natural because they are a result of the differences in innate human nature. It is his view that some people are just more gifted than