It's the Economic Divide, Stupid!

In a recent editorial, Bill Moyers made a case for the un-level playing field people are on; the inequality of life in America and the lack of opportunity where once there was so much hope.

We’re talking what it takes to live a decent life. If you get sick without health coverage, inequality matters.  If you’re the only breadwinner and out of work, inequality matters.  If your local public library closes down and you can’t afford books on your own, inequality matters.  If budget cuts mean your child has to pay to play on the school basketball team, sing in the chorus or march in the band, inequality matters. If you lose your job as you’re about to retire, inequality matters.  If the financial system collapses and knocks the props from beneath your pension, inequality matters.

Neither one of us grew up wealthy, but we went to good public schools, played sandlot ball at a good public park, lived near a good public library, and  drove down  good public highways – all made possible by people we never met and would never know. There was an unwritten bargain among generations: we didn’t all get the same deal, but we did get civilization.

On Sunday March 3,  Moyers & Company aired the encore broadcast of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class  with the authors.

Robert Reich had this to say in today's blog post;   

The challenge at the heart of the productivity revolution – and it is a revolution – is how to distribute the gains. So far, we’ve been failing miserably to meet that challenge.

The share of the gains going to everyone else in the form of wages and salaries has been shrinking. It’s now the smallest since the government began keeping track in 1947.

If the trend continues, inequality will become ever more extreme.

Pretty poignant stuff.