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arXiv · 2405.13341

Wealth inequality and utility: Effect evaluation of redistribution and consumption morals using the macro-econophysical coupled approach

Takeshi Kato·Yosuke Tanabe·Mohammad Rezoanul Hoque
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Abstract

Reducing wealth inequality and increasing utility are critical issues. This study reveals the effects of redistribution and consumption morals on wealth inequality and utility. To this end, we present a novel approach that couples the dynamic model of capital, consumption, and utility in macroeconomics with the interaction model of joint business and redistribution in econophysics. With this approach, we calculate the capital (wealth), the utility based on consumption, and the Gini index of these inequality using redistribution and consumption thresholds as moral parameters. The results show that: under-redistribution and waste exacerbate inequality; conversely, over-redistribution and stinginess reduce utility; and a balanced moderate moral leads to achieve both reduced inequality and increased utility. These findings provide renewed economic and numerical support for the moral importance known from philosophy, anthropology, and religion. The revival of redistribution and consumption morals should promote the transformation to a human mutual-aid economy, as indicated by philosopher and anthropologist, instead of the capitalist economy that has produced the current inequality. The practical challenge is to implement bottom-up social business, on a foothold of worker coops and platform cooperatives as a community against the state and the market, with moral consensus and its operation.

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Takeshi Kato, Yosuke Tanabe, Mohammad Rezoanul Hoque. 2024-05-22. Wealth inequality and utility: Effect evaluation of redistribution and consumption morals using the macro-econophysical coupled approach. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.13341

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