Hello, I'm City Journal editor Brian Anderson.

Thanks for joining us for the Ten Blocks podcast featuring urban policy and cultural commentary with City Journal editors, contributors, and special guests.

Hello, and welcome to Ten Blocks, the podcast of City Journal. I'm Seth Barron, associate

editor of City Journal. I'm joined today by Amity Schlaiz, Chair of the Board of Trustees

of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and author of three New York Times bestsellers,

including The Forgotten Man, a History of the Great Depression, and Coolidge, which Alan Greenspan

called one of the best books of 2013. Amity, thanks for joining us today at Ten Blocks.

Thank you, Seth.

Now your new piece in the winter issue of City Journal is entitled, Growth, Not Equality.

We hear a lot about wealth and income inequality, especially here in New York City.

You seem to say that equality as a goal isn't necessarily so great, but isn't inequality

bad for society? Extreme inequality over time is bad for society. It was the fatal blow to the

Roman Republic, for example, way back in the past. But inequality

as a goal doesn't necessarily lead to growth. And growth is necessary for republics, too.

So when you target growth, sometimes you get inequality for a while.

Eventually, you get more equality because you get a higher standard of living in which many

participate.

But in the shorter term, sometimes growth leads to inequality or coexist with inequality.

And what this article says is, that's all right. America isn't really

about equality so much as opportunity. Now, I know you've written a lot about the Great Depression

and Calvin Coolidge. Now, I always learned that the Great Depression was a result of business

and unrestrained markets running America

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