Battling for equality the right way

Highly progressive taxes on income, wealth, and inheritance have been tried for long. They failed in producing the desired result

On April 23, Sam Pitroda, chairman of Indian Overseas Congress until Wednesday, drew our attention to the problem of inequality. Large inequalities of income and wealth are repugnant in every society. The problem is in finding a solution and not fighting it the wrong way. 

Highly progressive taxes on income, wealth, and inheritance, and, in the extreme, even state-ownership of the means of production, have been tried for long. They failed in producing the desired result, and at worst, resulted in the withering away not of inequality but of the state itself, like the former Soviet Union.

India was no