Should we then pursue inequality?

Sir, Of course, if you pursue a high goal blindly, like a bull in a china-store, or hypocritically, with the intention of abusing such pursuit for your own self-serving interests, nothing good should come out of it, no matter how worthy the goal is, as almost any child should be able to tell you. That is why it is so hard to understand the added value of the recent calls to avoid a fixation on equity while fighting poverty, first by Moisés Naím in his “Let us abandon the fight against inequality” (April 17) and now by Arvind Panagariya in “The pursuit of equity threatens poverty alleviation” (May 31). If these two gentlemen are really suggesting that we should ignore inequalities, or perhaps even pursue them, to our own peril, then we would really ignite the mother of all debates, but for that they first need to make much stronger opening arguments.

As for me, for our global little world to have a chance to work out, I firmly believe that we all need to share much more equally the future, which is much better of course than just focusing on equally dividing the past.

Sent to FT May 31, 2006