by Robert Reich
I’m just returning from Toronto, where I met with Canadian academics, public officials, and others who are trying to do something to reverse widening inequality there. (Last night, a wonderful event at the Broadbent Institute.) Several observations: (1) The same centrifugal forces splitting the United States – globalization and technological advances -- are splitting Canada, as they are every nation. (2) Reversing the trend is a matter of political will. At the least, it requires a progressive tax system, strong unions, a high minimum wage and wage subsidies, and a first-class educational system starting with infants and extending all the way through university. (3) Canada isn’t as far along on the inequality path as is the U.S. because it has done better on many of these dimensions, but it’s trending toward the U.S. because its commitment to these sorts of policies has waned in recent years.
Bottom line: Reversing inequality of income and wealth is less an economic challenge than a political one. But as income and wealth concentrate at the top, political power does as well – thereby undermining the political capacity of a nation to respond.
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?fref=nf