Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I'm the editor and chief of Current Affairs Magazine. And today I am joined by political philosopher, Ingrid Robbins. She is the author of the new book, Limitarianism,

The Case Against Extreme Wealth.

Professor Robbins, welcome to Kurt Fares.

Thank you for having me.

Well, let's start with the viewpoint

that your book is in many ways a response to.

Certainly very common here in the United States.

That view, I suppose, could roughly be summarized as poverty is a problem.

Poverty is very sad.

We don't like it when people are poor and they suffer.

But inequality is not a problem. It doesn't matter how much people at the top have. It matters how much people

at the bottom have, but there should be no upper limit to wealth. As long as the economic pie is

growing and the poor are getting richer, it doesn't matter if the rich are getting much richer. They create wealth, what have you. Why should we care

about the top, the upper limit discussed in your book? So we'll get into all of the many reasons.

I know you've played out many, many reasons. But just as a broad overview, the first time someone

says, when you're sitting, you hear that

talking point, where do you begin?

Yes, so it depends on the person I'm having a conversation with.

But I think so inequality, there's a lot of all the research that has shown that inequality

in itself actually has negative effects on society, on the

social determinants of health.

So unequal societies are more unhealthy than equal societies.

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