Here are three intelligent people discussing the problem of inequality and universal basic income. It’s difficult to watch in the sense that they hit on so many ideas that are correct, for instance, that people don’t so much resent the inequality as they resent the perception that the game is rigged and that that’s not fair. I think they’re also correct in saying that what people care about more than the inequality is that their children will be able to close the gap to some extent.

But what blows me away is that they cannot seem to see the elephant in the room…government power rigging the game. Peterson even mentions the housing bust and subsequent bailouts and how that seems unfair…uhhh, yeah! That is very unfair. And this is an obvious example of the totally unfair nature of government intervention. This example is a stunningly obvious example of unfairness. The fact that they can’t immediately identify this and explain it speaks volumes about why people can’t identify the far more subtle interventions that government is engaged in constantly. These interventions combine to create massive disparities in wealth and it’s no wonder that people are disgusted with the economic system.

So you have three very intelligent people who for whatever reason cannot come to the obvious conclusion that the solution to the inequality problem is to minimize the size of government.

Imagine if they actually understood the role that the Federal Reserve has in creating this massive inequality. It is stunning that something this obvious is completely unrecognized by otherwise very intelligent people. Imagine the conversation the three of them could have and the impact it could have if the actually understood this and explained it to their audience.