(Robert Ashford, Professor of Law, © 2000 Robert Ashford, reprinted with permission of the author.)
- Why does wealth tend to concentrate in market economies even in times of great prosperity?
- Why (if markets are basically free and competitive) does vast excess productive capacity persist alongside of widespread unmet needs and wants?
- Why does the great promise of the industrial revolution (abundance and leisure) remain unfulfilled for most people?
- What is behind the proverb, “It takes money to make money”?
- What are the growth and distributive consequences of the fact that most capital is acquired with the earnings of capital?
- How can more economic opportunity become more broadly distributed?
- Is there a practical, efficient way to enable all people to acquire capital with the earnings of capital, without taking anything from existing owners?
- Will an opening of the capital markets produce substantial distribution-based economic growth?
- How can the need for increased economic growth to benefit poor and working people be harmonized with environmental necessities?
- Does it matter whether the ownership of capital is highly concentrated or broadly distributed among people?
Professor Ashford is author of Binary Economics: The New Paradigm, with Rodney Shakespeare (University Press of America, 1999).