5 Dec 2013
excerpt:
Much of our political and pundit class remains devoted to the notion that rising inequality, to the extent that it’s an issue at all, is all about workers lacking the right skills and education. But the president now seems to accept progressive arguments that education is at best one of a number of concerns, that America’s growing class inequality largely reflects political choices, like the failure to raise the minimum wage along with inflation and productivity.
And because the president was willing to assign much of the blame for
rising inequality to bad policy, he was also more forthcoming than in
the past about ways to change the nation’s trajectory, including a rise
in the minimum wage, restoring labor’s bargaining power, and
strengthening, not weakening, the safety net.
And there was this: “When it comes to our budget, we should not be stuck
in a stale debate from two years ago or three years ago. A
relentlessly growing deficit of opportunity is a bigger threat to our
future than our rapidly shrinking fiscal deficit.” Finally! Our
political class has spent years obsessed with a fake problem — worrying
about debt and deficits that never posed any threat to the nation’s
future — while showing no interest in unemployment and stagnating wages.
Mr. Obama, I’m sorry to say, bought into that diversion. Now, however,
he’s moving on.
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