This podcast explores the notion of income inequality. Although it’s an oft-discussed subject, it’s not always defined well or only discussed in the narrow band of the moral arguments against it. This discussion is meant to go deeper, including examining both the positive and negative aspects of inequality and its role in an economic system. Fundamentally, we’re asking the question as to whether some amount of inequality is a necessary byproduct of capitalism, or perhaps even a desirable outcome of an economic system. Therefore, we hypothesize that there may be an “optimal” amount of inequality in a society.

This episode examines the political debates around public health and public health policy. It is a perfect case study to illustrate so many of the principles covered in earlier podcasts, such as capitalism, externalities, risk, paranoia, and the dumbing down of America.

Welcome to The Boiling Frog reboot! The first 26 episodes were examinations of general topics, such as understanding capitalism, how social psychology belies the principles of capitalism, and how this all shapes political dialog. The new podcasts will look at specific policies of the new administration and use those as case studies to illustrate the real-life impact of those general concepts.

We start with tariffs, a word that Donald Trump loves and is already deploying across multiple sectors and trading partners. The principles we examine go back to two earlier podcasts – our very first one, Laissez Frog, which was about capitalism in general, and our 21st episode, Greenbacks, which was about taxes.