Poverty or Inequality: What’s the Problem?

Peter Marcuse Peter Marcuse's Blog
“War on poverty”, “ladders of opportunity”, “upward mobility” and “fight against inequality”: How do the terms used to describe a basic social problem in the U.S. differ, and why is it important?

Poverty and Inequality, in Charts

Jared Bernstein New York Times
Not only are we now faced with slower growth, but that lesser growth rate is much more narrowly distributed.

Antidotes to Avarice: A 2013 Top Ten

Sam Pizzigati toomuchonline.org
Nurses, philosophers, and UK trade unions have, over the past 12 months, all shared some fascinating ideas on how we can make our societies more equal — and much better — places to live.

labor

In No One We Trust

Joseph E. Stiglitz The New York Times
Rising inequality means rising distrust: A study published last year by the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the upper classes are more likely to engage in what has traditionally been considered unethical behavior. . . Economic inequality, political inequality, and an inequality-promoting legal system all mutually reinforce one another. . . As always, it is the poor and the unconnected who suffer most from this, and who are the most repeatedly deceived.

The Progressive 'Left' vs. Bill Keller's Disastrous 'Center-Left'

Dean Baker Common Dreams
Dean Baker refutes Bill Keller's New York Times article, "Inequality for Dummies," published on December 22, (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/opinion/inequality-for-dummies.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0) in which he contrasts the "left-left against the "center-left.

labor

Crushing Labor Unions and the Middle Class: Is this the American Way?

DIANE RAVITCH Diane Ravitch's Blog
Inequality across much of Europe has widened, but it is still quite modest when compared with the vast income gap in the United States.The question is whether relative equity can hold as workplace institutions that for decades protected European employees’ standard of living give way to a more lightly regulated, American-style approach, where the government hardly interferes in the job market and organized labor has little say.

How Inequality Became as American as Apple Pie

Jessica Weisberg thenation.com
The word “inequality” makes conservatives uncomfortable, as if it invokes class struggle, the 99 percent versus the 1. They much prefer “mobility,” which connotes a purely aspirational relationship to wealth and the wealthy.
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