There are three distinct forces that conspire to produce a great deal of economic misery. We can refer to them, for convenience, as misfortune, unfairness, and improvidence. Political philosophers have often shown an interest in one or another of these, but seldom all three. Furthermore, those who do acknowledge all three have often felt driven to collapse them into one root cause of inequality. My goal in this essay will be to argue that the three are independent of one another, but more importantly, that they each require distinct remedies. This is important for egalitarians because it defeats any attempt to develop a “one-size-fits-all” policy aimed at creating a more equal society. This analysis helps us to understand several of the tensions that arise in our attempts to combat inequality that are often obscured by an overemphasis on the power of redistributive taxation as well as generalized inattention to the way that successful welfare states achieve meaningful progress in promoting greater equality.

中文翻译：

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经济不平等的三个根源

三种截然不同的力量共同造成了巨大的经济苦难。为了方便起见，我们可以将它们称为不幸、不公平和短视。政治哲学家经常对其中的一个或另一个表现出兴趣，但很少对所有三个都表现出兴趣。此外，那些承认这三点的人常常感到有必要将它们归结为不平等的一个根本原因。我在本文中的目标是论证这三者是相互独立的，但更重要的是，它们各自需要不同的补救措施。这对于平等主义者来说很重要，因为它挫败了任何旨在创建一个更加平等的社会的“一刀切”政策的尝试。这一分析有助于我们理解在我们努力消除不平等的过程中出现的一些紧张局势，而这些紧张局势往往因过分强调税收再分配的力量以及普遍忽视成功的福利国家在促进更大平等方面取得有意义的进展而被掩盖。 。