# People, Not Ratios: Why the Debate Over Income Inequality Asks the Wrong Questions **URL:** **By** Ryan Young, Aaron Ross Powell, Trevor Burrus **Published:** October 28, 2016 --- Ryan Young joins us for a discussion about income inequality today, as part of Equality Month at Libertarianism.org. Has inequality gone up? Why have people been so fixated on income inequality lately? Is it really a matter of "the 1%" versus "the 99%"? How do things like occupational licensing, energy use, and regulation tie in to this? How do these things stack the deck against poor people? **Show Notes and Further Reading ** Here are Ryan Young's two most recent papers on the inequality, which he coauthored along with Iain Murray. ["People, Not Ratios: Why the Debate over Income Inequality Asks the Wrong Questions"](https://cei.org/sites/default/files/Ryan%20Young%20and%20Iain%20Murray%20-%20People%20Not%20Ratios.pdf) and ["The Rising Tide: Answering the Right Questions in the Inequality Debate."](https://cei.org/sites/default/files/Ryan%20Young%20and%20Iain%20Murray%20-%20The%20Rising%20Tide.pdf) [Freedom on Trial](https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/freedom-trial) is our new courtroom drama that takes viewers into the heart of the everyday issues that arise when an employer’s desire to hire more employees runs into the barrier of minimum wage laws, and when the government’s plans to “solve” income inequality only makes things worse. The quote Trevor paraphrases near the beginning of the show was a bit of wisdom from Anatole France: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." For a closer look at Thomas Piketty's _Capital in the Twenty-First Century_, [here's an older episode of Free Thoughts](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/pikettys-capital-in-the-twenty-first-century) with Scott Winship.