Income Inequality

A. benefits are reduced at such a high rate when recipients earn more income that there is little or no incentive to work once one is receiving benefits.
B. in order to be eligible for benefits a recipient cannot have a job
C. they make recipients more comfortable than most middle-class citizens.
D. anti-poverty programs attract naturally lazy people to begin with.

A. Such redistribution would mean that those who worked hard were no better off than those who were lazy and this would be unfair.
B. such redistribution would not maximize the total income of all members of society
C. Such redistribution would remove the incentive to work hard, so society’s total income would fall, and so the least well off person would be worse off than they could be under a system in which there was some inequality income.
D. such redistribution would amount to confiscation of honestly earned income from higher earners and so would be unjust.

A. redistributing income from rich to poor because this is what the members of society would choose to do if they were behind a veil of ignorance
B. redistributing income from rich to poor because due to the diminishing marginal utility of income, taking a pound from the rich reduces their utility by less than the gain in utility generated by giving a pound to the poor
C. allowing each individual to maximize their own utility without interference from the government
redistributing income from rich to poor because this would maximize the well-being of the worst-off person in society

A. Maximize the total utility of society
B. Maximize the well-being of the worst-off person in society
C. minimize the difference between the rich and poor
D. maximize the economic freedom of individuals by minimizing government interference in private decision making
E. minimize the well-being of the best-off person in society

A. transitory income is a good measure of the distribution of living standards
B. none of these answers
C. permanent income is a good measure of the distribution of living standards.
D. life-cycle income is a good measure of the distribution of living standards.
E. current annual income is a good measure of the distribution of living standards.

A. increase a worker’s current income and permanent income
B. reduce a worker’s current income but not necessarily their permanent income
C. affect neither the current nor the permanent income of a worker
D. reduce a worker’s permanent income but not their current income

A. accurately represent the true inequality of living standards
B. understate the inequality of living standards
C. exaggerate the inequality of living standards
D. could exaggerate of understate the inequality of living standards depending on whether the transfers are goods or services.