This article begins by talking about one general pattern of American social policy, which is to provide, with one hand, limited direct help to some poor and indirectly to subsidize, with another, the middle class and the wealthy. Next this article uncovers one of the most hidden arenas of social policy, the regulation of the labor market, and show how the ground rules shape inequality. Then, it examines higher education to get a better understanding of the diverse ways in which public investment also molds inequality. This article will help us better understand the major reasons why inequality is historically so inconstant and why inequality in America is so high.
The article talks about how the American government has done much to help lose left poor by the market. It talks about how some programs have been successful and some have not, who the programs have helped and who they hurt. They even talk about how a lot of the programs overlap. Then they explain why so many American children are poor, this is because young parents are more susceptible to poverty and because so many children live in single-parent families with very little income.
In contrast to the highly visible, direct and indirectly aid is given to the poor, American social policy tends to subsidize the middle class more generously, but indirectly and less visibly. The invisible polices for subsidizing the middle class are subsidizing home-ownership, housing and discrimination, health and health care, and subsidizing families. Also there is another set of subsidies that often goes unremarked: those that are directly or indirectly helpthe very wealthy.
Finally the article talks about how public investment also shape inequality. Some investments, like clean water or public parks, improve everyone's quality of life up and down the income ladder. Other investments benefits some of us more than others. The most important investment that affects us all but in different ways and is what the article focuses on and that is how much public higher education people are receiving.
What this article sums up to be about is that the inequality in America today is in great measure a result of policy decisions Americans have made or have not made.
Monday, November 9, 2009
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I would only like to comment on one particular part of this article, and yes this will be more of a soap box moment. Talking about inequality and poverty. There is the one hand, where people talk about it, but then there is the active hand, the one that is doing all the jabs in a boxing match, the hand that is working the hardest, actually doing it. If you want change, go make it. I am kind of sick of people on a self righteous pedistal talking about how we need to solve world hunger. Start solving! If we are going to change this whole poor/rich barrier, how are we who are priviledged enough to have money to throw food away going to help. You do not have to give away a ton of money to help. You can give your time, serving at a soup kitchen. You can give some resources, paying for a turkey for a family meal. You could even maybe even cook the meal for them and give a night to just pour into that individual. You can give the extra 5 dollars in your pocket. You could start a movement, like 2 of my friends did (the living hope movement). All of these people who talk about what everyone else needs to do, need to just do it. I personally volunteer a lot of time to help individuals who were not born into the priviledge that I was born into.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we hear so much about inequality, and only a few individuals like Martin Luther King actually fight for it. That is all, off the soap box. Sorry this was late.