Harry G. Frankfurt: On Inequality. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015. Pp. ixv, 102.)

Abstract

Harry Frankfurt has written a very accessible text addressing an extremely important contemporary problem. It provides a good critique of loose arguments about the evils of economic inequality you might find in the popular press. It provides a provocative critique of a widely accepted tenet of economics-the declining marginal utility of money. Ultimately, however, the text ignores the literature on inequality and egalitarianism for the sake of making its argument clear and simple. Frankfurt calls "egalitarians" out for misplacing the focus of their moral arguments. Economic inequality, he argues, "is not in itself objectionable" (5). Rather, "our basic focus should be on reducing both poverty and excessive affluence" (5). Frankfurt proposes "the doctrine of sufficiency … that what is morally important with regard to money is that everyone should have enough" as the appropriate alternative to economic egalitarianism (which he defines as "the doctrine that it is desirable for everyone to have the same amounts of income and of wealth") (6-7). Frankfurt believes this confusion not only muddles debates but also "distracts people from considering their own personal circumstances and needs" and "encourages them to aim, misguidedly, at a level of affluence measured by a calculation in which … the specific features of their own lives play no part" (10-11). Thus, a pursuit of egalitarianism diverts the individual from trying to discover "what he truly desires or needs, and what will actually satisfy him," and focuses attention on his position in relation to others (11). This results in

Effects of selfing on the evolution of sexual reproduction

“…Such costs of sex have been observed in various taxa (Michaels and Bazzaz 1986, Innes et al 2000, Kumpulainen et al 2004, Wolinska and Lively 2008). Another cost of sex is the “cost of meiosis” (Williams 1975), which happens because asexual reproduction is uniparental, so that an allele that increases asexual reproduction but keeps the male function can enjoy a transmission advantage by fertilizing female gametes of sexual individuals. It should be noted that the cost of males can apply to both individual and group selection and may occur in both hermaphroditic and separate-sex populations.…”

“…However, the cost of males can be compensated by benefits provided by males such as parental care, or increased access to resources for offspring production (Lehtonen et al 2012). Another cost of sex is the “cost of meiosis” (Williams 1975) or the cost of “genome dilution” (Lewis 1987), which occurs because a sexually reproducing individual contributes only half of its genomes to the offspring, while an asexual individual transmits the entire genome. However, this cost is weaker if increased allocation to asexual reproduction reduces gamete production.…”