Who should pay higher taxes and receive fewer benefits? What’s fair? As explored in Chapter 5, debt, taxes, and spending redistribute resources within and across generations. Addressing the debt problem would help future generations – the nation’s children and grandchildren. It is no longer clear that each generation will be better off than the one before it. This makes it all the more important that each generation controls the debt it leaves to the next generation. The United States used to have high income inequality and significant economic mobility: people who worked hard could ascend the income ladder. In recent years, though, the gap between rich and poor has grown dramatically while rates of mobility haven’t improved. Policymakers should narrow inequalityin ways that are productive and fair, investing more in education, healthcare, nutrition, neighborhoods, and employment programs, and judiciously raising taxes on high-income households.
Economic Inequality and Class Consciousness
