Is Inequality in Society Bad?

Notes taken from the podcast, Philosophy Bites. This episode is an interview with Alex Voorhove about Inequality
Italic passages are quotes from Alex Voorhove.

What kind of society has extreme inequalities, for instance, a huge gap between the rich and the poor?

Society of Domination and Envy
One group has all the power, and the lower group has no way of correcting power to meet their own needs.
The uppers and the lowers cannot connect or understand each other.
The lowers have envy and resentment or lack of self confidence or subservience
The uppers have a sense of entitlement and empowerment, that society should be run by them. They want to protect their position from the poor.
Thus, large inequality makes it impossible for the different groups to love each other
“No man should be rich enough to buy another and no man poor enough to want to sell himself.” –Rousseau

Everyone should have enough to have their needs met, and to have dignity before each other.

Do we just want to change the inequality gap, even if it improves no one’s life? In other words, should we take from the rich just so that they become closer to the poor? No, because although inequality matters, how people’s needs are met in absolute terms is more important.

“If you should get some manna from heaven which provides all your needs and someone else gets nothing and are doing very poorly, and there is nothing we can do to move it back and forth between you, then there is some unfairness there. It would be more fair if there were more balance.”

Inequality can matter without it being intrinsically bad. “Suppose that Anne has a moderate disability. She can walk on a level surface, but she can’t climb stairs and she can’t walk around outside. Suppose that Bob has a very severe disability. He can only sit up in bed on his own and he can’t move around on his own. Suppose you have to do one of two things. You can completely cure Anne, who has a moderate disability, restore her to full functioning or you can somewhat improve Bob’s situation so that he ends up, rather than very severely, he is only moderately disabled. And also suppose that both increases are equally valuable, there is an equal increase of well-being for either Bob or Anne. You can help only Anne or Bob. Who would you help?
“Almost everyone who has been asked questions of this kind think, If the gains are equally large to a better off person or a lesser off person we should give the gain to the lesser off person, if we can’t give it to both. This is a preference, in distribution, to those who are lesser off. It doesn’t follow that you believe that inequality is bad in and of itself. It doesn’t follow that you are committed to thinking that if we can’t help Bob it would be best to deny Anne treatment so that things would be more equal. But you can still think that Bob has a greater claim than Anne to a resource because he’s worse off.”

This idea has significant political and economic applications. The poor should be granted resources rather than the rich, if only one can get the resources. On the other hand, the rich shouldn't just have their wealth taken away from them for the purpose of creating a more equal society.