On June 3, 2012, Professor Robert Reich posted an op-ed on SFGate.com:
“Some self-styled “pro-growth centrists” in the Democratic Party are worried that the president is going too far in emphasizing widening inequality. They “wish the administration’s focus was on growth over fairness,” says the respected National Journal.
“They’re wrong. Fairness isn’t inconsistent with growth. It’s essential to it. The only way the economy can grow and create more jobs is if prosperity is more widely shared.
“For years, conservative “supply-side” economists have told America not to be worried about widening inequality. They have said tax cuts for corporations and the rich will lead to more economic growth and jobs.
“It has been a cruel hoax. Nothing has trickled down. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 – the lion’s share of whose benefits went to the wealthy – ushered in an era of slow growth, fewer jobs, declining wages and mammoth budget deficits.
“You want to know the real reason the economy crashed in 2008 and why the recovery has been so anemic? Because so much of the nation’s income and wealth have become concentrated at the top that America’s vast middle class doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going.”
Reich use the terms “widening inequality” and “wealth” without really defining what he means. I hope his use of “wealth” means physical productive capital, which is the engine of economic growth. And that “widening inequality” means that the ownership of “wealth” continues to concentrate in the top tiny minority of the population.
Reich should just come out and proclaim that our leaders need to adopt policies and programs that broaden private, individual ownership of future productive capital “wealth” assets simultaneously with economic growth, which would result overtime in reducing inequality and providing a path to prosperity, opportunity, and economic justice for ALL Americans.
