in his column in Thursday's New York Times.
His guide has five principles which I will list here - these are his exact words, each followed by additional text:
First, economic inequality has worsened significantly in the United States and some other countries.
Second, inequality in America is destabilizing.
Third, disparities reflect not just the invisible hand of the market but also manipulation of markets.
Fourth, inequality doesn’t necessarily even benefit the rich as much as we think.
Fifth, progressives probably talk too much about “inequality” and not enough about “opportunity.”
Unfortunately, equal opportunity is now a mirage. Indeed, researchers find that there is less economic mobility in America, than in class-conscious Europe.
By now I hope I have at least aroused some interest on your part in reading the entire column.
Let me offer a bit more from the column and a few thoughts of my own below the squiggle.
Inequality causes problems by creating fissures in societies, leaving those at the bottom feeling marginalized or disenfranchised. That has been a classic problem in “banana republic” countries in Latin America, and the United States now has a Gini coefficient (a standard measure of inequality) approaching some traditionally poor and dysfunctional Latin countries.
The
widipedia entry on Gini coefficients will you explain fairly clearly what this measure is.
If you want to explore inequality more thoroughly among the nation's of the world, this Wiki article offers data from the World Bank, the CIA, the UN, and the Global Peace Initiative.
Remember that the higher the GINI index the greater the inequality. Some caution - even though the US may have a higher GINI than some third-world nations, that is because in some cases almost the entire nation is poor - for example, Bangladesh. It is nevertheless embarrassing to look at the data to the US and compare to our economic partners in Western Europe, for example.
Kristof begins his column discussing how the Piketty book is in many ways the latest great unread bestseller, noting how most of the highlighting being done on Kindle comes from the first 26 pages or so.
He returns to Piketty in his concluding paragraph, which is worth sharing:
There’s still a great deal we don’t understand about inequality. But whether or not you read Piketty, there’s one overwhelming lesson you should be aware of: Inequality and lack of opportunity today constitute a national infirmity and vulnerability — and there are policy tools that can make a difference.
national infirmity and vlunerability - hmm, last time I checked that would qualify as a major national security issue.
We got a sense of that in the previous administration, with foreign entities purchasing major American infrastructure - remember the brouhaha over Dubai Ports?
That problems is far more widespread than most Americans realize. Let me cite just two more examples.
The Indiana Toll Road is a major east-west artery. If I may quote from the Wikipedia article on it, it
is owned by the Indiana Finance Authority and operated by the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, a joint-venture between Spain's Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte and Australia's Macquarie Atlas Roads.
Not an outright sale of the road, but still troubling.
As a teacher let me point out another: increasingly the most important company in education is textbook publisher and test creator Pearson, which is a British company.
Whatever wealth is generated from ventures like this is not improving the lives of Americans.
A nation where the economic disparities are too great will see those with wealth perverting the instruments of the state even further to protect themselves against the possible anger and/or desperation of the masses.
Democracy cannot long exist in such a situation.
When the inequality and lack of opportunity are combined with the use of wealth to further distort the political and governmental processes to further benefit the few at the top of the inequality pyramid - something the likes of the Koch Brothers have been doing for years, and which has been further exacerbated by recent decisions by the Conservative Republican dominated US Supreme Court - then the Constitution and Bill of Rights which are supposed to protect Americans in our "more perfect union" and "establish justice" will become little more than empty words on parchment and paper: we will no longer have a social contract to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" and there will be real question of whether we can even "insure domestic Tranquility."
Inequality and lack of opportunity today constitute a national infirmity and vulnerability - and if the Democratic party is unwilling to sound the alarm and to rally the people so that we do not lose our democratic republic to the plutocrats, then maybe it is time to consider again the words of Jefferson in the Declaration, offered after reminding us about our rights
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
and withdraw that consent.
Continuing with Jefferson,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Once more, remember these words from Kristof:
Inequality and lack of opportunity today constitute a national infirmity and vulnerability
If our government and our political parties will not address this national infirmity and vulnerability it may be time to replace them both.
What do you think?
Peace?