August, 07 2017, 01:30pm EDT
Addressing Inequality at the Root:
New Report Lays Out Systemic Drivers and Key Interventions
WASHINGTON
Almost half of all workers earn under $15 an hour and one in every seven Americans - 43 million people - live below the poverty line. A new report by the Next System Project, a project of the Democracy Collaborative, and the Institute for Policy Studies, "Reversing Inequality: Unleashing the Transformative Potential of an Equitable Economy," offers a more critical explanation for inequality and systemic solutions that can help move us forward.
The report finds that over the past four decades, the U.S. economy has doubled in size but the bottom-earning half of all U.S. households has seen no income gains. While there is now widespread understanding that extreme income and wealth inequality is growing and has negative impacts on society, most proposed solutions fail to address deeper systemic drivers, instead focusing on technological change and globalization which have supercharged inequalities, but are not the primary drivers.
This report explains how the rules governing the economy (like productivity gains flowing to investors) have been distorted by power differentials and political factors.
"Income inequality is the most pressing issue of our time. Public health, education, racism, and environmentional degradation all have roots in the systemic inequalities deeply ingrained in our economic model," report author Chuck Collins said.
The report outlines some key policy interventions to reverse this destablizing trend. They fall into four categories, including policies that:
- Lift the Floor, establishing minimal standard of living and safety nets
- Level the Playing Field, by ensuring investments in public goods and elimination of the distorting influences of power and privilege
- Deconcentrate Wealth, through interventions that directly reduce the concentration of wealth and power
- Rewire the System, to undercut inequality drivers
It's hard to imagine many of these solutions moving forward at the national level in the current political environment, but this report identifies opportunities to incubate them in states and localities and lay the groundwork for a future political realignment by focusing on "pressure points."
Three examples in the paper are:
- Dividends for all - linking common wealth sources of revenue to programs that expand economic stability
- Taxing excessive carbon solution and directing revenue to investments in renewable energy, green infrastructure and just transition efforts
- Expand tuition-free higher education by creating education trust funds funded by progressive taxes on wealth
This report is the first in a new series by the Next System Project called Transformations: Systemic Challenges and Solutions in 21st Century America.
To read the entire paper, click here.
Learn more about the Next System Project here.
Learn more about the Institute for Policy Studies here.
Institute for Policy Studies turns Ideas into Action for Peace, Justice and the Environment. We strengthen social movements with independent research, visionary thinking, and links to the grassroots, scholars and elected officials. I.F. Stone once called IPS "the think tank for the rest of us." Since 1963, we have empowered people to build healthy and democratic societies in communities, the US, and the world. Click here to learn more, or read the latest below.
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The straightforward demand consistently made by human rights experts, a top European Union official, and college students across the U.S. and in a growing number of countries formed the basis for a Global Day of Action on Thursday, with 250 groups organizing direct actions to call on governments around the world to "Stop Sending Arms" to Israel.
Groups including Amnesty International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the Center for Jewish Nonviolence helped organize actions in at least 12 countries, "with a strategic emphasis on countries with significant arms exports" and an "aim to resonate globally."
Protest events including rallies, "die-ins," and the projection of messages and images on government buildings were organized in countries including the United States—the top supplier of arms to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)—Canada, Germany, Australia, South Korea, and Slovakia.
"The Global Day of Action must serve as a wake-up call to states that continue to supply arms to all parties to the conflict in Gaza that they are at risk of being complicit in war crimes and other violations of international law," said Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns at Amnesty International.
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"While students have been calling on their universities to divest from Israel, FCNL is urging our government to stop military aid," said the group. "It's clear there's a growing demand to end U.S. complicity in the war in Gaza."
Organizers in Australia displayed signs reading, "Every F-35 [fighter jet] contains some Australian parts and components."
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Los Angeles police wearing riot gear launched a violent attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA early Thursday, using flash bangs and firing impact munitions at students demanding an end to their university's complicity in Israel's war on Gaza.
Video footage posted to social media by reporters present at the scene shows officers firing multiple "less lethal" munitions and sound-concussive devices at student demonstrators as they closed in on the encampment, which UCLA's leadership has declared unlawful.
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"They'd rather shoot kids than stop this genocide," said one observer.
Police fire multiple impact munitions at protestors. 4:38am pic.twitter.com/960I4iVMtt
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) May 2, 2024
Graeme Blair, an associate professor of political science and member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCLA, told the university's student newspaper early Thursday that police officers "violently dragged" students from the Gaza solidarity encampment and that some demonstrators were "visibly injured."
"Their blood is on Gene Block and the UC administration's hands for a series of catastrophic decisions over the last two days," said Blair, referring to UCLA's chancellor. "It did not need to be this way."
Blair said UCLA professors inside the encampment "plan to be arrested alongside students who have done nothing but talk about a genocide taking place in Palestine."
Matt Barreto, a professor of Chicano studies and political science, told the Los Angeles Times that "our job is to stand up for their First Amendment rights, their rights on their own campus."
Police arrest protestor 4:55am pic.twitter.com/udgS0Terc9
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) May 2, 2024
The police raid came 24 hours after Los Angeles officers and campus security stood by as a pro-Israel mob violently attacked pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Dozens of students were reportedly taken to hospitals for treatment following the assault.
The Daily Bruin, whose student journalists were on the scene, reported Thursday that police "continued to detain protesters in the encampment as the clock struck 4:00 am, marking one week since the initial erection of the solidarity encampment by the UC Divest Coalition and Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA."
"At 4:05 am, a slew of loud noises presumed to be flash bangs went off," the newspaper added. "Dozens of protesters exited the encampment by climbing through the bushes near Powell Library onto the Janss Steps lawn. Protesters chanted, 'Gene Block, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide' and, 'We are students' as smoke from the presumed flash bangs thickened above Dickson Plaza."
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