As we reported here yesterday, Paul Krugman has written in his blog about income disparity and how its effects turn up in places like Harvard Business School.
In practice, inherited wealth and connections matter enormously; those not born into the upper tier are, and know themselves to be, at a huge disadvantage. Furthermore, you can clearly see some of the other costs of inequality — for example, expenditure cascades, in which the less well-off feel compelled to go into debt in an attempt to keep up. ...Krugman/blog
He expands on the increase in the inequality of opportunity today at the Times as a candidate for mayor in New York suggests that New York invest in fairer educational system by imposing a tax on the very rich. After all, what is the source of that enormous wealth? Ironically, much of it comes from you and me.
What’s driving these huge income gains at the top? There’s intense debate on that point, with some economists still claiming that incredibly high incomes reflect comparably incredible contributions to the economy. I guess I’d note that a large proportion of those superhigh incomes come from the financial industry, which is, as you may remember, the industry that taxpayers had to bail out after its looming collapse threatened to take down the whole economy. ...PaulKrugman,NYT
That bailout came from us.
... Whatever is causing the growing concentration of income at the top, the effect of that concentration is to undermine all the values that define America. Year by year, we’re diverging from our ideals. Inherited privilege is crowding out equality of opportunity; the power of money is crowding out effective democracy. ...PaulKrugman,NYT
Of course, it's that inherited privilege that shows up in places like Harvard Business School. And throughout our educational system. There may be some changes.
Bill deBlasio won the Democratic primary in the race for mayor of New York on Tuesday. DeBlasio is proposing "prekindergarten education, paid for with a small tax surcharge on those with incomes over $500,000.."
The usual suspects are, of course, screaming and talking about their hurt feelings; they’ve been doing a lot of that these past few years, even while making out like bandits. But surely this is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing: Taxing the ever-richer rich, at least a bit, to expand opportunity for the children of the less fortunate. ...PaulKrugman,NYT
If you think about it, all that's happening here is that we're taking back some of the money we lost when the super-rich a) were assessed ever-lower taxes over several decades and who --when they got themselves and the rest of us into big trouble -- b) were given a bail-out with money that came from all of us.
Doing something about disparity of opportunity in our educational system is somehow unfair?
Some pundits are already suggesting that Mr. de Blasio’s unexpected rise is the leading edge of a new economic populism that will shake up our whole political system. That seems premature, but I hope they’re right. For extreme inequality is still on the rise — and it’s poisoning our society. ...PaulKrugman,NYT
