Can a Law End Economic Inequality?

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:



Can a Law End
Economic Inequality?
A high-ranking British Labor Party leader has just opened a bold new campaign for legislation that would obligate government, at all levels, to close the "class divide."

January 19, 2009

By Sam Pizzigati


The British Labor Party came to power a dozen years ago with a commitment to attack poverty — and a willingness to leave rich people alone. Britain’s rich proceeded to make the most of that opportunity. By 2007, the UK’s wealthiest 1,000 had nearly quadrupled their collective fortune.

The poor would not be so fortunate. In 2007, child poverty in the UK increased — by 100,000 kids. Brits born in 1970 have less chance of overcoming a lowly economic start in life than Brits born in the 1950s. Among major developed nations, only the United States displays as little social mobility as Britain.

What to do? Last week, in an official “white paper” entitled New opportunities: Fair chances for the future, the Labor Party government offered a surprisingly novel — and rather remarkable — proposal.

The absence of real opportunity in the UK, this white paper posits, demands an outright mandate for economic equality: a new law that would make the narrowing of the gap between rich and poor a binding obligation on every level of British government.

“We have already legislated to require public authorities to tackle the inequality that arises from race, gender, or disability,” the white paper explains. “But we know that inequality does not just come from your gender or ethnicity, your sexual orientation, or your disability. Co-existing and interwoven with these specific inequalities lies the persistent inequality of social class.” .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.toomuchonline.org/articlenew_2009/jan19a.html

[Demeter]

1. Good Luck UK---We'll Be Watching