English Topics

Inequality for all

Inequality for All is a concept created by Robert Reich, a left economist and ex Secretary of Labour. He explains that some inequality is good because it stimulates motivation and innovation at work. Inequality becomes a problem when the richest don’t spend enough to stimulate the economy. He talks about two main concepts: deregulation and trickle-down economics.

Deregulation and trickle-down economics

Deregulation widened the gap of inequality at the end of the 70s, as labour unions declined, wages were cut, and production processes started moving abroad; while trickle down consists in lowering taxes on the rich to increase their capital investments, jobs, and employment. Reich saw parallelism between the 1928 and 2007 crises and describes the suspension bridge (when the income gap is the highest, you get a crash). In both cases, the middle class created a debt bubble to maintain its living standards (they spend 70% of the total). The two main issues nowadays are globalization and technology, because wages are declining, and CEOs get always higher salaries.

Equality conundrum

Inequality is one of the greatest dangers in the world, even if we can’t define exactly what equality means. There may be a trade-off between treating people equally and treating them as equals. Inequality is everywhere and is unignorable.

According to the Declaration of Independence, it is self-evident that all men are created equal. However, some are born smart, others beautiful, others rich, so we can’t say we’re created equal, even if we are entitled to equal treatment under the law. Equality could be defined as even distribution of resources, treatment of people, or access to opportunities.

Deep equality and associated concepts

Deep equality should provide a moral sense of what is right or wrong. Natality (Anna Arendt) suggests we’re all born as newcomers that must learn, which is a pessimistic view. Prioritarianism highlights the importance of fundamental needs (but needs of some can be luxuries to others). The luck-egalitarian system states that the capacity to profit from chances is equally distributed.

Philanthropy

Old philanthropy is different from the new one. It was based on the idea that helping the poor was a perversion of God’s self-reliance and Darwin’s theory of natural law and survival of the strongest. Early philanthropists financed museums, expensive art collections, concert halls, and libraries (culture).

New philanthropy is outcome-oriented, as it ensures that the contributions go to the intended recipients, avoiding corrupt local authorities. Melinda and Bill Gates are some of the most famous philanthropists. Their programmes focus on global development and global health; they funded the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria as angel-funding and now want to expand on climate change and gender equality. Philanthropy is based on the mechanism of leverage that allows creating high amounts of money starting from smaller contributions.