<\/p>\n

The Article:<\/strong> The Four Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Inequality<\/a> by Robert Reich.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> Even though French economist Thomas Piketty has made an air-tight case that we\u2019re heading toward levels of inequality not seen since the days of the nineteenth-century robber barons, right-wing conservatives haven\u2019t stopped lying about what\u2019s happening and what to do about it.<\/p>\n

Herewith, the four biggest right-wing lies about inequality, followed by the truth.<\/p>\n

Lie number one: The rich and CEOs are America\u2019s job creators.<\/strong> So we dare not tax them.<\/p>\n

The truth is the middle class and poor are the job-creators through their purchases of goods and services. If they don\u2019t have enough purchasing power because they\u2019re not paid enough, companies won\u2019t create more jobs and economy won\u2019t grow.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve endured the most anemic recovery on record because most Americans don\u2019t have enough money to get the economy out of first gear. The economy is barely growing and real wages continue to drop.<\/p>\n

We keep having false dawns. An average of 200,000 jobs were created in the United States over the last three months, but huge numbers of Americans continue to drop out of the labor force.<\/p>\n

Lie number two: People are paid what they\u2019re worth in the market.<\/strong> So we shouldn\u2019t tamper with pay.<\/p>\n

The facts contradict this. CEOs who got 30 times the pay of typical workers forty years ago now get 300 times their pay not because they\u2019ve done such a great job but because they control their compensation committees and their stock options have ballooned.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, most American workers earn less today than they did forty years ago, adjusted for inflation, not because they\u2019re working less hard now but because they don\u2019t have strong unions bargaining for them.<\/p>\n

More than a third of all workers in the private sector were unionized forty years ago; now, fewer than 7 percent belong to a union. <\/p>\n

Lie number three: Anyone can make it in America with enough guts, gumption, and intelligence.<\/strong> So we don\u2019t need to do anything for poor and lower-middle class kids.<\/p>\n

The truth is we do less than nothing for poor and lower-middle class kids. Their schools don\u2019t have enough teachers or staff, their textbooks are outdated, they lack science labs, their school buildings are falling apart.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re the only rich nation to spend less educating poor kids than we do educating kids from wealthy families. <\/p>\n

All told, 42 percent of children born to poor families will still be in poverty as adults \u2013 a higher percent than in any other advanced nation. <\/p>\n

Lie number four: Increasing the minimum wage will result in fewer jobs.<\/strong> So we shouldn\u2019t raise it.<\/p>\n

In fact, studies show that increases in the minimum wage put more money in the pockets of people who will spend it \u2013 resulting in more jobs, and counteracting any negative employment effects of an increase in the minimum. <\/p>\n

Three of my colleagues here at the University of California at Berkeley \u2014 Arindrajit Dube, T. William Lester, and Michael Reich \u2013 have compared adjacent counties and communities across the United States, some with higher minimum wages than others but similar in every other way.<\/p>\n

They found no loss of jobs in those with the higher minimums.<\/p>\n

The truth is, America\u2019s lurch toward widening inequality can be reversed. But doing so will require bold political steps.<\/p>\n

At the least, the rich must pay higher taxes in order to pay for better-quality education for kids from poor and middle-class families. Labor unions must be strengthened, especially in lower-wage occupations, in order to give workers the bargaining power they need to get better pay. And the minimum wage must be raised. <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t listen to the right-wing lies about inequality. Know the truth, and act on it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: The Four Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Inequality by Robert Reich. The Text: Even though French economist Thomas Piketty has made an air-tight case that we\u2019re heading toward levels of inequality not seen since the days of the nineteenth-century robber barons, right-wing conservatives haven\u2019t stopped lying about what\u2019s happening and what to do about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n