Baltimore And The Choices We've Made

(click on image to enlarge)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico, via gocomics.com)

In today's New York Times, Nicholas Kristof tells us that "inequality is a choice":

THE eruptions in Baltimore have been tied, in complex ways, to frustrations at American inequality, and a new measure of the economic gaps arrived earlier this year:

It turns out that the Wall Street bonus pool in 2014 was roughly twice the total annual earnings of all Americans working full time at the federal minimum wage.

You read that right: Just the annual bonuses for just the sliver of Americans who work just in finance just in New York City dwarfed the combined year-round earnings of all Americans earning the federal minimum wage.  (our emphasis)

And why is that, you say?

We as a nation have chosen to prioritize tax shelters over minimum wages, subsidies for private jets over robust services for children to break the cycle of poverty. And the political conversation is often not about free rides by corporations, but about free rides by the impoverished.

Kristof cites an upcoming book by British economist Anthony Atkinson that offers policy recommendations should we, as a nation, ever want to get serious about addressing the issues of poverty, inequality and the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a wealthy elite.  Here are a few of Atkinson's recommendations, as summarized by Kristof:

o Trade unions should be bolstered to represent workers’ interests.

o Government should provide public-sector jobs at minimum wage to those who want them, in areas such as meals-on-wheels, elderly care, child care and so on.

o In addition to a minimum wage, there should be a framework to restrain pay at the highest levels. Atkinson cites companies that have voluntarily decreed that executive pay should be capped at 65 or 75 times the average pay in the firm.

o Every child should get a “child benefit” payment, to help keep kids out of poverty.

2016 could be a defining election in this regard, because the contrast couldn't be greater between the Republican Party's interest in protecting the wealthy few at the expense of the middle and working classes, and the Democratic Party's interest in promoting economic and social equality.  But, as Kristof concludes: "The problem isn’t inequality; the problem is us. We’re paralyzed."

There's one way to begin to end the paralysis, and that starts in November 2016.

BONUS:  Robert Reich has a good read on economic inequality and what we need to do to address it.