A Great Time to Be Alive?
Matt Yglesias
The Nation
June 30, 2010 |
This article appeared in the July 19, 2010 edition of The Nation.
But the fact remains that here, in what's still the wealthiest large nation on earth, things have not been improving in a nearly commensurate manner. And yet it's not as if global economic growth has passed the country by. Instead, a wildly disproportionate share of the material gains of recent technological progress and economic globalization has been captured by a tiny, already rich slice of the population. The causes of this are complicated and controversial, and the solutions can be complicated if we want; but they can also be simple—the government can and should deploy its tax authority to capture a larger share of this wealth and spend it on useful services for the broad public.
Higher taxes to finance more and better public services is not the only conceivable method of curbing inequality, but it is the best one because it directly tackles the most objectionable aspect of high inequality in the economy—its tendency to perpetuate itself in the form of unequal access to basic social goods and unequal access to opportunities in the next generation.
The goal should be a country where every neighborhood features safe, well-paved streets, excellent schools, functioning mass transit and a healthy environment. Families should have equal access to medical treatment if they fall ill, to preschool and to decent nutrition for their children, and to a secure retirement after a few decades in the workforce. Those with skills that are more highly valued in the marketplace would still have fancier cars, larger televisions, more upscale clothing. But the main conditions for human flourishing would be available across the board, and no family would need to worry that broadening America's circle of social and economic opportunity by allowing foreigners to move here or sell goods across national borders imperils their fundamental interests.
(More here.)
The Nation
June 30, 2010 |
This article appeared in the July 19, 2010 edition of The Nation.
But the fact remains that here, in what's still the wealthiest large nation on earth, things have not been improving in a nearly commensurate manner. And yet it's not as if global economic growth has passed the country by. Instead, a wildly disproportionate share of the material gains of recent technological progress and economic globalization has been captured by a tiny, already rich slice of the population. The causes of this are complicated and controversial, and the solutions can be complicated if we want; but they can also be simple—the government can and should deploy its tax authority to capture a larger share of this wealth and spend it on useful services for the broad public.
Higher taxes to finance more and better public services is not the only conceivable method of curbing inequality, but it is the best one because it directly tackles the most objectionable aspect of high inequality in the economy—its tendency to perpetuate itself in the form of unequal access to basic social goods and unequal access to opportunities in the next generation.
The goal should be a country where every neighborhood features safe, well-paved streets, excellent schools, functioning mass transit and a healthy environment. Families should have equal access to medical treatment if they fall ill, to preschool and to decent nutrition for their children, and to a secure retirement after a few decades in the workforce. Those with skills that are more highly valued in the marketplace would still have fancier cars, larger televisions, more upscale clothing. But the main conditions for human flourishing would be available across the board, and no family would need to worry that broadening America's circle of social and economic opportunity by allowing foreigners to move here or sell goods across national borders imperils their fundamental interests.
(More here.)
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