Ever since I wrote The Spirit Level Delusion in 2010 I've been asked to speak at debates about income inequality. I wasn't interested in inequality when I read The Spirit Level and I'm not particularly interested in it now. My view is that it could be a symptom of a problem but it cannot be a problem in itself. Material living standards, prosperity and growth are what matters, not envy.
Mere indifference to income inequality is enough to make some people angry, but their angry is usually based on a misunderstanding of the basic facts. For example, people think that Britain is one of the world's least equal countries and that inequality is spiralling out of control. These beliefs are simply untrue and so, in a probably futile attempt to bring some facts into the picture, my IEA colleague Ryan Bourne and I have written a mythbuster about income and wealth inequality in Britain. It's called Never Mind the Gap and you can download it for free here.
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