ONE OFTEN hears talk of income disparities between members of different groups. Blacks earn less than whites; the elderly are growing more prosperous, while children are increasingly likely to be poor; and women, despite noteworthy advances among the single and educated, still make far less money than men. Such disparities are often raised in political debate as evidence of injustice, and hence of the need to redirect policy. The question of whether “economic inequality,” as these income disparities are known, is itself an appropriate subject for political concern often goes begging.