PREPPING, ONCE AGAIN, FOR AN AUDITION

So no post tonight. Well, there is this thing which dropped into my lap (h/t to my buddy Josh at work), from Vanity Fair:

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul. There are several reasons for this.

First, growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity. Whenever we diminish equality of opportunity, it means that we are not using some of our most valuable assets—our people—in the most productive way possible. Second, many of the distortions that lead to inequality—such as those associated with monopoly power and preferential tax treatment for special interests—undermine the efficiency of the economy. This new inequality goes on to create new dishttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftortions, undermining efficiency even further. To give just one example, far too many of our most talented young people, seeing the astronomical rewards, have gone into finance rather than into fields that would lead to a more productive and healthy economy.

Third, and perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology. The United States and the world have benefited greatly from government-sponsored research that led to the Internet, to advances in public health, and so on. But America has long suffered from an under-investment in infrastructure (look at the condition of our highways and bridges, our railroads and airports), in basic research, and in education at all levels. Further cutbacks in these areas lie ahead.

More here.

The essay's written by Joseph Stiglitz, a former Clinton economist who has seemingly veered to the left since those heady days of the tech bubble and Oval Office blowjobs. It deals with a lot of issues I talk about all the time here at Real Art, but focuses specifically on the very real problems, some as dire as massive civil unrest, associated with economic inequality. And it's not a pretty picture he paints in as much as where the US is right now in terms of the rich getting richer and all of us getting poorer.

Good essay; go read it.

Also, wish me luck!

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