Nadia Prupis at Common Dreams, writes
Growing Global Inequality Gap 'Has Reached a Tipping Point':
With the gap between the rich and poor growing worldwide, a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published Thursday suggests that the only way to reverse such rampant inequality is by implementing government measures aimed at balancing the playing field
Chief among those measures: Tax the rich and push for gender equality.
In its 34 member states, income inequality has reached record highs, the OECD found in its study, In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All. The average income of the top 10 percent was 9.6 times higher than the bottom 10 percent, the OECD found. In the U.S., it was 19 times higher.
"We have reached a tipping point," said OECD secretary-general Ángel Gurría. "The evidence shows that high inequality is bad for growth. The case for policy action is as much economic as social. By not addressing inequality, governments are cutting into the social fabric of their countries and hurting their long-term economic growth." [...]
The OECD recommends a wide range of solutions to reverse the growing wealth gap, including removing the obstacles that prevent mothers from working; doing more to provide youth with useful skills and allow workers to continue updating those skills over time; and redistribute wealth through taxes and transfers, which the report describes as a "powerful instrument to contribute to more equality and more growth."
The report is 300+ pages and I am still working my way through it. But it's worth some of your time, even if you skim. There's nothing radical proposed, which is too bad, because that's what is needed. The data, however, are important to our understanding of what is happening and what to do about it.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Buying the Occupation:
The only people who actually know what’s going on regarding the supplemental appropriations bill on Iraq are insiders and those with a good connection to a few of them. The rest of us can only guess based on what we’re reading from suspect sources. And, because coming up with a supplemental bill is a process until it becomes a product, the situation can change from morning to afternoon, if not hour to hour. What may have been true yesterday, or at noon today, may not be the case at the moment. [...]
As the neoconservative Max Boot wrote today in the The New York Times:
But we shouldn’t kid ourselves that even in the unlikely event that all these bills are approved by September, they will mark a turning point in the war. At best they will give Gen. David H. Petraeus and President Bush some signs of progress they can point to in arguing for more patience from the American public to give the "surge" a chance to work.
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More patience. For those elected Democrats who still don’t get it, what this means is that Mister Bush and his mentors and minions expect to run out the clock until they can wash their hands of the occupation come January 2009. They will come back in July and September and point to a few "successes" in the splurge of blood and bucks, and try to persuade enough in Congress to stick with the program for another few months.
Tweet of the Day
The Duggar girls - the real victims - have become completely invisible in all this.
— @word_34
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: Duggar! Boy Scouts face reality. Irish abroad heading home to vote in today's historic referendum on marriage equality.
Greg Dworkin rounds up stories on ACA entrenchment, Christie's recovery attempt that hometown papers aren't buying, handicapping who gets into the GOP debates, Obama's (un) lame duck status, a peek inside Am. Board of Internal Medicine finances, and O'Reilly's in hot water (and denial) again.
NYT reporter way out on a limb on Hillary.
Armando joins in to discuss the Duggar & O'Reilly. Kansas, whose governor blows a lot, ups its punish the poor game. Journos reconsider the "Fight for $15." Self-driving cars might not necessarily kill us all.
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