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| Wednesday, January 12, 2005 |
| Current economic inequality nearing all-time high |
Thanks to friend Jared for sending this article from the Economist, on increasing economic disparity between rich and poor, and more interestingly, the increasing difficulty to better one's class or economic standing over previous generations. The author cites a number of studies showing that social mobility has declined in recent decades, harkening back to the "Gilded Age" when an aristocratic class dominated and ensured generational continuity of the aristocracy. Policies like Teddy Roosevelt's inheritance tax were what brought us out of such a system, but that is the exact tax that the wealthy Republican elite is currently trying to do away with (thanks to their marketing machine that has successfully rebranded it "the death tax").
Additionally (see Thomas Frank) Republicans have actually succeeded in getting poor "values" conservatives to push policies such as tax cuts for the rich and this estate tax elimination, even though by doing so these folks will be ensuring their economic hardship for generations to come.
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posted by CB @ 1:02 PM   |
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