Obama Right To Focus On Inequality

President Obama gave a great speech last week focusing on economic inequality.  The speech was followed by the usual hand-wringing among some Democrats that this was a bad issue.  Alex Macgillis responds convincingly, first by quoting WaPo columnist Charles Lane:

“…the top 10 percent of U.S. earners claimed about half of all before-tax income in 2012, including capital gains.” Another stunning stat that Obama cited in his big speech on inequality last week: “A child born in the top 20 percent has about a 2-in-3 chance of staying at or near the top.  A child born into the bottom 20 percent has a less than 1-in-20 shot at making it to the top.” Meanwhile, many economists now conclude that inequality hinders economic growth and may even raise the likelihood of financial crashes like the 2008 collapse.”

Focusing on inequality is the right thing to do from a moral standpoint and from a policy one.  It is also (if packaged right) a viable political strategy.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.