Should Government Reduce Inequality in Life Spans?

[brendan]

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2009/Leelifeexpectancy.html#

[bubble sunglasses]

 
 I don't see parity in govt attempts to reduce either manifestation of inequality. With the income gap, the govt takes money from rich people to give to [relatively] poor people. I'm not saying that's neccesarily a good thing, but the would-be policy Lee proposed to reduce the difference in life expectancy, would be, in effect, taking life away from women with a life expectancy lower than the average for men, the "poor" in a sense.

 
 I'd like to see evidence of this
 "A policy that retards the growth in the incomes of the wealthy to increase transfers to the poor can be expected to reduce income growth for both while doing little to reduce income inequality."

[brendan]

I'd like to see evidence of this
 "A policy that retards the growth in the incomes of the wealthy to increase transfers to the poor can be expected to reduce income growth for both while doing little to reduce income inequality."

Well it's probably not evidence for that very specific proposition that the author made, but I did write something for a macro paper last year. Here is an extract:
http://home.exetel.com.au/brendan/macro.pdf