One tradeoff society faces is between efficiency and equality. Define each term. If the U.S. government redistributes income from the rich to the poor, explain how this action affects equality as well as efficiency in the economy

Answer 1

Efficiency is the property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources. Equality is defined as the property of distributing economic prosperity evenly among the members of society. Often, these two goals conflict. When the government redistributes income from the rich to the poor, it reduces the reward for working hard. Fewer goods and services are produced and the economic pie gets smaller. When the government tries to cut the economic pie into more equal slices, the pie gets smaller. Policies aimed at achieving a more equal distribution of economic well-being, such as the welfare system, try to help those members of society who are most in need. The individual income tax asks the financially successful to contribute more than others to support the government.