Why “Luck” Doesn’t Explain Wealth and Success in the Marketplace

Egalitarians assume people would be equal but for oppression or the random hand of luck, and that where injustice can't be shown, luck alone justifies equalizing by force. Joshua Mawhorter turns the presupposition around. Drawing on Rothbard's Egalitarianism: A Revolt Against Nature and Sowell's Discrimination and Disparities, he argues that inequality is the normal condition of a world of scarcity, change, time, and choice; that it is precisely what makes exchange possible; and that the only equality worth defending is equality of liberty under the rule of law.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 25, 2026.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.