"Income Inequality Sheds Its Taboo Status" by Chrystia Freeland

[applegrove]

Income Inequality Sheds Its Taboo Status

By CHRYSTIA FREELAND | REUTERS (NY Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/us/30iht-letter30.html?_r=0

"SNIP......................................


If you are still not convinced that all this matters, consider the third, and most striking, possibility raised at the Brookings panel. Set aside any moral or political concerns you may have about rising income inequality — worries about poverty, justice, undue political influence or even social mobility. According to Mr. Dervis, and the research collected in “Inequality in America,” a growing number of economists suspect that once inequality passes a certain point it may jeopardize economic stability and economic growth.

As the book argues, “rebalancing of the distribution of income may play a role in unlocking the U.S. economy’s growth potential in a sustainable way.”

Now that is a truly radical thought, and it brings us back to Mr. Milanovic’s earlier view that income inequality was a forbidden subject in the United States.

Worrying about the poor is one thing. To contend that equality is necessary for growth is an altogether different and more radical idea. Three decades later, trickle-down economics has met its antithesis. We are set for one of the great battles of ideas of our time.

......................................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. I still say Occupy Wall Street did the heavy lifting when it comes to putting inequality

on the agenda in the USA.

[LisaLynne]

2. I agree.

The whole 99% slogan took off and I hear it from people who are far from progressive. It was really a subject that people ran from and now, we can actually talk about it. In public, even!

[wendylaroux]

4. I agree 100% applegrove!!

job well done.

[limpyhobbler]

3. Mainstream liberal economists have been saying a for a while

that our economy pays a big price for inequality.

Joseph Stiglitz even wrote a whole book on it, The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future

I don't see that as a radical idea at all. It's just common sense.

[Quantess]

5. Interesting.