Sunday, August 28, 2011
Income inequality is everywhere...
...but its discussion is circumscribed in the US to public policy fora and the occasional presidential candidate (either on the progressive left or on the populist right) who rails against the elite. I have been recently analyzing data from the United Nations University on income inequality in countries around the world for a paper I am writing for the American Political Science Association meeting this week in Seattle, and the picture is one of rising inequality, everywhere. In the U.S. since the mid-1980s inequality has increased by about 25%. In Canada, it has increased by 14% over that same time period. The causes of rising income inequality are numerous and complex, but as a value, global society seems to place inequality at lower priority.
The photo, by the way, is the view of the Owyhee Mountains from Bittner Winery near Marsing, Idaho.
