Ideology and Income Inequality

There’s a strong argument for Citizen Dividends, the guaranteed basic income, in Bob Herbert’s column in today’s New York Times. (It’s a strong argument for people like Herbert, that is, who worry about income inequality, the gap between the very rich and the rest of us; not so strong for people who think the gap is okay, people Herbert labels “right-wingers.” Other arguments are more likely to appeal to conservatives, and I believe there are many powerful reasons for conservatives to support Citizen Dividends.)

Too bad Herbert doesn’t go there. He’s mostly focusing on what he sees as the underyling causes and attitudes. Here’s a long quote:

The seeds of today’s disaster were sown some 30 years ago. Looking at income patterns during that period, my former colleague at The Times, David Cay Johnston, noted that from 1980 (the year Ronald Reagan was elected) to 2005, the national economy, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. (Because of population growth, the actual increase per capita was about 66 percent.)

But the average income for the vast majority of Americans actually declined during those years. The standard of living for the average family improved not because incomes grew but because women entered the workplace in droves.

As hard as it may be to believe, the peak income year for the bottom 90 percent of Americans was way back in 1973, when the average income per taxpayer, adjusted for inflation, was $33,000. That was nearly $4,000 higher, Mr. Johnston pointed out, than in 2005.

The peak year, note, was 1973. That was also the end of the national debate about guaranteed income. Richard Nixon’s plan was blocked in the Senate; George McGovern lost the ’72 election; neither Gerald Ford nor Jimmy Carter got very far in their effortrs to reintroduce the idea. And now it’s almost completely forgotten.

Herbert’s column clearly suggests that guaranteed income did not simply fall out of the political discourse. These ideas were excluded deliberately, systematically. Here’s another quote:

Working people were not just abandoned by big business and their ideological henchmen in government, they were exploited and humiliated. They were denied the productivity gains that should have rightfully accrued to them. They were treated ruthlessly whenever they tried to organize. They were never reasonably protected against the savage dislocations caused by revolutions in technology and global trade.

It’s class warfare, in other words, ideological henchmen on one side, with lots of money to invest in their cause, and naïve workers on the other.

The current economic crisis, however, is a good opportunity to recall that we’re all in this together. All of us, We the People, will benefit from Citizen Dividends.

Please help spread the word.

Steven Shafarman

Tags: Bob Herbert, conservative support, economic growth, George McGovern, liberals, Richard Nixon

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 12:30 pm and is filed under economic growth.
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