Inequality and Economic Segregation

Abstract

This chapter develops the idea of economic segregation as a type of injustice. Its approach consists in a sort of hybrid between luck egalitarianism, incorporating a concern about an individual’s prospects being dependent on unchosen conditions of family background, and social egalitarianism, with its emphasis on injustice being a feature of group difference. Special attention is paid to the way segregation occurs when nonfinancial capital becomes concentrated into different groups, typically according to the prior existence and endurance of group-based wealth inequalities. Having laid out this concern, brief consideration is given to whether the problem might be wholly solved through institutional reforms other than taxation.