THE CHALLENGE OF INEQUALITY

 

The presenter at the Peters Town Hall Speaker Series, Ms. Zanny Minton Beddoes, gave an over the moon talk on Tuesday, December 3.  As an editor for the Economist, she took her audience around the world, in explaining the state and interconnectivity of the international economy.  Being British and working for a British publication, she could step back from the myopic view of the American press and place world economic events in context.  If a transcript of her talk is available I would urge anyone interested in world events to read it.

Ms. Minton Beddoes ended her lecture by explaining the social forces she believes will shape the future and gave us her acronym: “dead drunk under the influence”.  She uses this ominous phrase to help remember her four horseman of social change: debt, demographics, unemployment and inequality.

She believes that debt is not an immediate problem for the large western nations, including the United States, but remains the scourge of Southern Europe.  On demographics and aging populations, she reminded the audience that more elderly Asians are in diapers than are infants.  On unemployment, she believes the number of young unemployed in Southern Europe and the Mid East could easily lead to political instability.

It was Ms. Minton Beddoes comments on inequality that most interested me.  She believes this may be the greatest problem facing our country.  She presented statistical evidence that the United States has regressed back to the gilded age of the robber barons when it comes to income inequality.  She is concerned that America’s urban areas will be divide between the “haves” in walled off splendor and the “have nots” with substandard housing, education and social programs.

Ironically, the day after the above lecture was given President Obama made inequality a major focal point for the remainder of his term in office.  He gave a speech, agreeing with Ms. Minton Beddoes, that the rapidly growing deficit of opportunity is a bigger threat than the fiscal deficit.  The President stated: “The basic bargain at the heart of our economy has frayed” and that Americans should be offended that a child born into poverty has such a hard time escaping it. 

Hopefully the Republican Party will not seize on this policy initiative to call the President a socialist (or worse). His words echo the recent views of Pope Francis and other world leaders and could form the basis for political resolve on both sides of the political aisle.  In this holiday season, how could anyone disagree that each child who goes to bed hungry or is denied a good education or the elderly homeless person who dies from exposure is a more important story than the stock market results?  But the daily news cycle shows the opposite to be the case. 

The President has placed inequality at the front of the news cycle.  Now is the time to press ahead and to propose positive policy initiatives.  People’s frustrations with the “do nothing Congress” could quickly be reversed by attacking head on the frustrations that many citizens encounter in not being able to make ends meet, no matter how hard they work.  He can begin by vetoing any reduction in food stamp allotment and working to replace reductions in important social programs cut by the automatic sequester last year.