This talk captured my attention because I spent several hours last night with a group of people talking about the value of educating children in a diverse economic environment. We were talking about creating and sustaining a private school with a public school population and how powerful and valuable that would be. We talked about the vast delta between the very rich and the very poor in our country and how, as we focus on the outcomes of our societal investments, we fear one outcome is less educated, less capable, less empowered kids for every social level, not just the poor kids. During this conversation I had no data to back up my instinct that our staggering, widening social gap has terrible consequences for the country. We can all point to our out-of-work friend or a kid who needs help but to think systemically about the cost; I had no way to do it.
I don’t want to steal from the rich to give to the poor. I don’t advocate death to rich people. I advocate a level playing field and a sensible approach to community accountability and responsibility. That’s all. So let’s talk turkey. A report released today by the Congressional Budget Office tells a pretty clear story: The top 1% of households saw their after-tax incomes grow by 275% from 1979 to 2007. 275%. The rest of us? 40%.
2010 IRS Returns show a group of 1.6 million people earning 50% more income than a group of 69.9 million people.
SUMMARY OF FEDERAL INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX DATA, 2010
The top 50% make 7x what the bottom 50% make.
If the bottom 50% had health care, food, access to education and stable housing, maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But they don’t. If the tax codes (and I don’t just mean federal income tax as is listed above) were less regressive (think gas tax as a % of your income), maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal. I don’t know.
But it is a big deal. Especially when the richest people, or some of them, appear at least to have gotten their wealth at the expense of those that don’t have any money. It’s a big deal because the outcomes tell us it’s a big deal, not because you or I have a big feeling about it.
Richard Wilkinson’s talk is sobering. The outcomes of social inequality are inexplicably clear: the greater the inequality, the greater the cost to society.
Filed under: education, General Tagged: | Economic inequality, Richard G. Wilkinson, TED
I say tax the rich at least twenty percent of their income off the top, and give it to the government, and that would decrease our national debt and our cost of inflation by at least a minimum of fifteen per cent. I think. I’m not good with politics but this was one of my ideas. Then the government can go and return that money into better education programs in rural and metropolitan areas for children, as well as for former public school children such as myself. I got a great education out of going to a public school. Why not donate the money towards that?