Richard Epstein on Cruises, First-Class Travel, and Inequality

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2016

⏱️ 64 minutes

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Summary

How should we feel about cruise lines that offer special amenities for top-paying travelers, or first-class sections of airplanes? Do such consumption inequalities harm the social fabric or is there more to the story? Richard Epstein of New York University and the Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about these issues arguing that these kinds of unequal treatment provide benefits beyond those who receive the top-of-the-line option. The conversation then moves on to a general discussion of inequality, taxation, and redistribution.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:09.2	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.7	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:18.7	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.7	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done
0:25.8	going back to 2006.
0:28.2	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:30.7	We'd love to hear from you.
0:34.2	Today is June 2, 2016, and my guest is Richard Epstein.
0:39.1	He is the Lawrence A. Tish Professor of Law at New York University School of Law.
0:44.4	He's the Peter and Kristen Bedford Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, and
0:49.2	he is also the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and a Senior
0:53.8	Lecture at the University of Chicago.
0:56.2	He appears weekly with Tricinic on the podcast, The Libertarian.
1:00.5	Richard is a prolific scholar, writer, thinker on a wide range of topics, including property
1:05.9	rights, the Constitution, the rule of law.
1:08.6	Topics he has discussed here in previous episodes, all available in the econtalk archive.
1:13.5	Richard, welcome back to econtalk.
1:15.2	That's always nice to be back with you, Russ.
1:17.6	Our topic today is inequality, and it's based on a very thoughtful piece you wrote in
1:22.1	reaction to an article in the New York Times.
1:24.6	That New York Times article was bemoning the fact that a Norwegian cruise line has created
	...

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