{"id":178875,"date":"2016-02-08T16:15:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T21:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webadmin.news-harvard.go-vip.net\/gazette\/gazette\/?p=178875"},"modified":"2017-12-20T15:48:22","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T20:48:22","slug":"the-costs-of-inequality-increasingly-its-the-rich-and-the-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-increasingly-its-the-rich-and-the-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"The costs of inequality: Increasingly, it\u2019s the rich and the rest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tThe costs of inequality: Increasingly, it\u2019s the rich and the rest\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tEconomic and political inequities are interlaced, analysts say, leaving many Americans poor and voiceless\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\n\n\t\t

Second in a series<\/a> on what Harvard scholars are doing to identify and understand inequality, in seeking solutions to one of America\u2019s most vexing problems.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can\u2019t have both,\u201d Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said decades ago during another period of pronounced inequality in America.<\/p>\n

Echoing the concern of the Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate, over the past 30 years myriad forces have battered the United States\u2019 legendary reputation as the world\u2019s \u201cland of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2008 global economic meltdown that eventually bailed out\u00a0Wall Street financiers but left ordinary citizens to fend for themselves trained a spotlight on the unfairness of fiscal inequality. The issue gained traction during the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in 2011 and during the successful U.S. Senate campaign of former HLS Professor Elizabeth Warren<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n

What was once viewed as a fringe political issue is now at the heart of the angry, populist rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign. Personified by outsider candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, economic inequality<\/a> has resonated with broad swaths of nervous voters on both the left and right.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d
\n\u2014 Robert Putnam<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lawrence Katz, the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), says the most damaging aspects of the gap between the top 1 percent of Americans and everyone else involve the increasing economic and political power that the very rich wield over society, along with a growing educational divide, and escalating social segregation in which the elites live in literal and figurative gated communities.<\/p>\n

If the rate of economic mobility \u2014 the ability of people to improve their economic station \u2014 was higher, he says, our growing income disparity might not be such a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what we have been seeing is rising inequality with stagnant mobility, which means that the consequences of where you start out, whether it\u2019s in a poor neighborhood, whether it\u2019s from a single-parent household, are more consequential today than in the past. Your ZIP code and the exact characteristics of your parents seem to matter more,\u201d said Katz. \u201cAnd that\u2019s quite disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The growing gap between the rich and the rest isn\u2019t a matter of who can afford a yacht or a Manhattan penthouse, analysts say. Rather, it\u2019s the crippling nature of these disparities as they touch nearly every aspect of daily lives, from career prospects and educational opportunities to health risks and neighborhood safety.<\/p>\n

The widening income gap also has fueled a class-based social disconnect that has produced inequitable educational results. \u201cNow, your family income matters more than your own abilities in terms of whether you complete college,\u201d said Robert Putnam<\/a>, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). \u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"Theda
Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

Economic inequality also feeds the\u00a0political kind, driving everything from the actions of our political representatives to the quality and quantity of civic engagement, such as voting and community-based public service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s long been known that the better educated, those with higher incomes, participate more\u201d in politics on \u201ceverything from voting to contacting politicians to donating,\u201d said Theda Skocpol, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at FAS. \u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Money eases access<\/h2>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s unlacing of campaign-finance laws that limited how much donors could give candidates or affiliate organizations, coupled with allowing donors to shield their identities from public scrutiny, have spawned a financial arms race that requires viable presidential candidates, for example, to solicit donors constantly in a quest to raise $1 billion or more to win.<\/p>\n

Given that rulebook, it\u2019s hardly surprising that the political supporters with the greatest access to candidates are usually the very wealthy. Backers with both influence and access often help to shape the political agenda. The result is a kind of velvet rope that can keep those without economic clout on the sidelines, out of the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the current election cycle, 158 families have given half the money to candidates.”
\n\u2014 Lawrence Lessig<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSomething like the carried-interest provision in the tax code, when you explain it to ordinary citizens, they don\u2019t like the idea that income earned by investing other people\u2019s money should be taxed at a lower rate than regular wage and salary income. It\u2019s not popular in some broad, polling sense. But many politicians probably don\u2019t realize it at all because \u2026 politicians spend a lot of their time asking people to give money to them [who] don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea to change that,\u201d said Skocpol. \u201cThere\u2019s a real danger that, as wealth and income are more and more concentrated toward the top, it does become a vicious circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney has corrupted our political process,\u201d said Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at HLS. In Congress, he said, \u201cThey focus too much on the tiny slice, 1 percent, who are funding elections. In the current election cycle [as of October], 158 families have given half the money to candidates. That\u2019s a banana republic democracy; that\u2019s not an American democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lessig was so unhappy with how political campaigns are funded that he briefly ran for president on the issue. Reviewing his efforts during a Harvard forum on the topic in November, he described his candidacy as a referendum on the campaign-finance system, but also on the need to reform Congress, which he called a \u201cbroken and corrupted institution\u201d undercut by big donors and gerrymandered election districts.<\/p>\n

How we got here<\/h2>\n

Christopher \u201cSandy\u201d Jencks, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at HKS, believes that the past 30 years of rising American inequality can be attributed to three key factors:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The decline in jobs and employment rates for less-skilled workers, which has increased the number of households with children but no male breadwinner.<\/li>\n
  • The demand for college graduates outpacing the pool of job candidates, adding to the gap between the middle class and upper-middle class.<\/li>\n
  • The share of income gains flowing to the top 1 percent of earners doubling as a result of deregulation, globalization, and speculation in the financial services industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The U.S. government does \u201cconsiderably less\u201d than comparable democracies to even out disposable family incomes, Jencks says. And current state and local tax policies \u201cactually increase income inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cAll the costs and risks of capitalism seem to have been shifted largely to those who work rather than those who invest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    Compounding the economic imbalance is the unlikely prospect that those at the bottom can ever improve their lot.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe have some of the lowest rates of upward mobility of any developed country in the world,\u201d said Nathaniel Hendren, an associate professor of economics at FAS who has studied intergenerational mobility and how inequality transmits across generations.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

    \"Income
    Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households">CBPP.org<\/a>\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

    Hendren, along with Harvard economists Katz and Raj Chetty, now at Stanford University, looked at the lasting effects of moving children to better neighborhoods as part of Moving to Opportunity, a short-lived federal housing program from the \u201990s. Their analysis, published in May, found that the longer children are exposed to better environments, the better they do economically in the future. Whichever city or state children grow up in also radically affects whether they\u2019ll move out of poverty, he said.<\/p>\n

    For children in parts of the Midwest, the Northeast, and the West, upward mobility rates are high. But in the South and portions of the Rust Belt, rates are very low. For example, a child born in Iowa into a household making less than $25,000 a year has an 18 percent chance to move into the upper 20 percent of income strata over a lifetime. But a child born in Atlanta or Charlotte, N.C., has only a 4 percent chance of moving up, their study found.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

    \"Economic
    Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

    What unites areas of low mobility, Hendren says, are broken family structures, reduced levels of civic and community engagement, lower-quality K-12 education, greater racial and economic segregation, and broader income inequality.<\/p>\n

    In addition, 90 percent of American workers have seen their wages stall while their costs of living continue to rise.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhen you look at the data, it\u2019s sobering. Median household income when last reported in 2013 was at a level first attained in 1989, adjusting for inflation. That\u2019s a long time to go without any gains,\u201d said Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS).<\/p>\n

    Wage inequality is on the rise for both genders. Within that range, the gap between men and women remains a hot-button issue despite gains by women in the past three decades. Broadly, the ratio of median earnings for women increased from 0.56 to 0.78 between 1970 and 2010.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

    \"Median
    Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

    But according to Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at FAS, the gender earnings gap is not a constant, varying widely by occupation and age. While women in their late 20s earn about 92 percent of what their male counterparts earn, women in their early 50s earn just 71 cents on the dollar that the average man makes. For some career paths, like pharmacists, veterinarians, and optometrists, corporatization has closed the gap between men and women.<\/p>\n

    Even so, wiping away the gender pay gap isn\u2019t a cure-all for the larger issues of inequality.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIf you reduce gender inequality to zero, you\u2019ve closed inequality \u2026 by a very small percent,\u201d said Goldin. \u201cI\u2019m not saying there aren\u2019t things that we can\u2019t fix, but I am telling you, without a doubt, they\u2019re going to move the lever by very little.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Underinvestment in \u201cthe commons\u201d<\/h2>\n

    Rivkin says that the pressures of globalization and technological change and the weakening of labor unions have had a major impact. But he disagrees that political favoritism toward business interests and away from ordinary citizens is the primary reason for burgeoning inequality. Rather, he says that sustained underinvestment by government and business in “the commons\u201d \u2014 the institutions and services that offer wide community benefits, like schools and roads \u2014 has been especially detrimental.<\/p>\n

    Last spring, HBS conducted an alumni survey for its annual U.S. Competitiveness Project research series, probing respondents for their views on the current and future state of American businesses, the prospects of dominating the global marketplace, and the likelihood that the resulting prosperity would be shared more evenly among citizens.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d
    \n\u2014 Theda Skocpol<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The survey findings, released in September, showed that most HBS alumni were skeptical that living standards would rise more equitably soon, given existing policies and practices. A majority said that inequality and related issues like rising poverty, limited economic mobility, and middle-class stagnation were not only social ills, but problems that affected their businesses.<\/p>\n

    \u201cMy sense is that a larger and larger number of business leaders are waking up to the idea that issues of inequality, and particularly lack of shared prosperity, have to be addressed for the sake of business,\u201d said Rivkin, the project\u2019s co-chair.<\/p>\n

    The surging power of the very wealthy in America now rivals levels last seen in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, analysts say. One difference, however, is that the grotesque chasm between that era\u2019s robber barons and tenement dwellers led to major social and policy reforms that are still with us, including labor rights, women\u2019s suffrage, and federal regulatory agencies to oversee trade, banking, food, and drugs.<\/p>\n

    Hendren said there\u2019s no less chance today of rising or falling along the income spectrum than there was 25 years ago. \u201cThe chances of moving up or down the ladder are the same,” he said, “but the way we think about inequality is that the rungs on the ladder have gotten wider. The difference between being at the top versus the bottom of the income distribution is wider, so the consequences of being born to a poor family in dollar terms are wider.\u201d<\/p>\n

    What price inaction?<\/h2>\n

    Unless America\u2019s policymakers begin to chip away at the underlying elements of systemic inequality, the costs to the nation will be profound, analysts say.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI think we will pay many prices. We will continue to have divisive politics. We won\u2019t make the investments we need to provide the majority of kids with a better life, and that would be really not fulfilling,\u201d said Katz.<\/p>\n

    Partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., has diminished the effectiveness of government \u2014 perhaps the most essential and powerful tool for addressing inequality and citizens’ needs. By adopting a political narrative that government should not and cannot effectively solve problems, legislative inaction results in policy inaction.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

    \"\"
    Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

    \u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a strategy\u201d to justify starving government of resources, which in turn weakens it and makes it less attractive as a tool to accomplish big things, said Skocpol. \u201cIn an everybody-for-themselves situation, it is the better-educated and the wealthy who can protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Surveying the landscape, Katz sees reasons to be both hopeful and worried.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe optimism is that there are regions of the U.S., metropolitan areas that have tremendous upward mobility. So we do have models that work. We do have programs like Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit that work pretty well. I think that if national policy more approximated the upper third of state and local policies, the U.S. would have a lot of hope,\u201d said Katz. \u201cMy pessimistic take would be that if you look at two-thirds of America, things are not improving in the way we would like.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Putnam is heartened that inequality has been widely recognized as a major problem and is no longer treated as a fringe political issue.<\/p>\n

    What can be done?<\/h2>\n

    Jencks says there are many steps the federal government could take \u2014 if the political will existed to do so \u2014 to slow down or reverse inequality, like increasing the minimum wage, revising the tax code to tax corporate profits and investments more, reducing the debt burden on college students, and improving K-12 education so more students are better prepared for college and for personal advancement.<\/p>\n

    \u201cStrong regulation and strong support for collective control over the things that society values is much more prevalent in societies that have lower levels of inequality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    Though labor rights have been eroding for decades, Benjamin Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at HLS, still thinks that unions could provide an unusual way to help equalize political power nationally. Unions used to wield both economic and political clout, but legislative and court decisions reduced their effectiveness as economic actors, cutting their political influence as well. At the same time, campaign finance reform to limit the influence of wealth on politics has failed.<\/p>\n

    To restore some balance, Sachs suggests \u201cunbundling\u201d unions\u2019 political and economic activities, allowing them to serve as political organizing vehicles for low- and middle-income Americans, even those whom a union may not represent for collective bargaining purposes.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe risk that economic inequalities will produce political ones \u2026 has led to several generations of campaign finance regulation designed to get money out of politics. But these efforts have not succeeded,\u201d Sachs wrote in a 2013 Yale Law Review article. \u201cRather than struggling to find new ways to restrict political spending by the wealthy \u2026 the unbundled union, in which political organization is liberated from collective bargaining, constitutes one promising component of such a broader attempt to improve representational equality.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Still, given the historic labor and wage trend lines, Goldin said the economic forces that perpetuate unequal wages \u2014 and inequality more broadly \u2014 won\u2019t simply disappear even with a spate of new laws.<\/p>\n

    [gz_sidebar align=”right”]<\/p>\n

    Possible solutions to economic and political inequality:<\/h3>\n
      \n
    • Increase economic mobility<\/li>\n
    • Tax corporate profits, investments more<\/li>\n
    • Raise the minimum wage<\/li>\n
    • Cut the debts of college graduates<\/li>\n
    • Improve K-12 education<\/li>\n
    • Reduce the influence of money in politics<\/li>\n
    • Even out disposable family incomes<\/li>\n
    • Tax carried interest at a higher rate<\/li>\n
    • Make business taxes a compliance issue<\/li>\n
    • Mentor low-income children<\/li>\n
    • Jump-start vocational education<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      [\/gz_sidebar]<\/p>\n

      \u201cI think it is na\u00efve of most individuals to think that for everything there is something that government can legislate and regulate and impose that makes life better for everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Even so, with Congress stalled over fresh policies, analysts say that much of the innovation concerning inequality has moved to state and local levels, where partisanship is less calcified and the needs of constituents are more evident.<\/p>\n

      In Oregon and California, for example, residents will be automatically registered to vote upon turning 18, a move that Skocpol says should bolster civic participation and provide protection from onerous new voter-identification laws.<\/p>\n

      While it\u2019s clear that investing in children and their education pays lifelong dividends for them, those gains take 20 years to be realized, said Katz. That\u2019s why it\u2019s critical that their parents get help and live in less vulnerable situations.<\/p>\n

      \u201cThere is certainly evidence that if we reduce the degree of economic and racial and ethnic segregation of our communities, we can move in that direction,\u201d said Katz, who is working on an experiment to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in New York City to help younger workers without children who are struggling to break into the labor market.<\/p>\n

      Changes to the minimum wage, the tax system, and the treatment of carried interest \u201care all debates in which our society should engage,\u201d said Rivkin, who cautioned that those would be hard-fought political battles that wouldn\u2019t yield results for at least a decade.<\/p>\n

      Of course industry needs to run its businesses productively and profitably, but it can do so without harming \u201cthe commons,\u201d Rivkin said. \u201cBusiness has been very effective at pursuing its narrow self-interest in looking for special tax breaks. I think that kind of behavior just needs to stop.\u201d Drawing on an idea from HBS Finance Professor Mihir Desai, Rivkin suggests that businesses treat their tax responsibilities as a compliance function rather than as a profit center. That money could then go back into investment in \u201cthe commons,\u201d where \u201clots of common ground\u201d exists\u00a0among\u00a0business, labor, policymakers, educators, and others.<\/p>\n\n

      \u201cThe businesses should be working with the local community college to train the workers whom they would love to hire; the university should be getting together with policymakers to figure out how to get innovations out of the research lab into startups faster; business should work with educators to reinvent the school system,\u201d said Rivkin.<\/p>\n

      Putnam suggests more widespread mentoring of low-income children who lack the social safety net that upper- and middle-class children enjoy, a topic he explored in his book \u201cOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

      He recently convened five working groups to develop a series of white papers that will offer overviews of the key challenges in family structure and parenting; early childhood development; K-12 education; vocational, technical, and community colleges; and community institutions. The papers will be shared with mayors and leaders in churches, nonprofits, and community organizations across the nation, where much of the reform effort is taking place.<\/p>\n

      \u201cThere\u2019s an increasing sense that this is a big deal, that we\u2019re moving toward an America that none of us has ever lived in, a world of two Americas, a completely economically divided country,\u201d said Putnam. \u201cThat\u2019s not an America I want my grandchildren to grow up in. And I think there are lots of people in America who, if they stop and think about it, would say, \u2018No, that\u2019s not really us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

      Illustration by Kathleen M.G. Howlett.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Next Tuesday: Inequality in education<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Increasingly, economic and political inequality in America is interlaced, analysts say, leaving many more people poorer and voiceless. 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class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2016-02-08\">\n\t\t\tFebruary 8, 2016\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\tlong read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"right"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p><em>Second in a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/topic\/inequality\/\">series<\/a> on what Harvard scholars are doing to identify and understand inequality, in seeking solutions to one of America\u2019s most vexing problems.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can\u2019t have both,\u201d Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said decades ago during another period of pronounced inequality in America.<\/p>\n<p>Echoing the concern of the Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate, over the past 30 years myriad forces have battered the United States\u2019 legendary reputation as the world\u2019s \u201cland of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 global economic meltdown that eventually bailed out\u00a0Wall Street financiers but left ordinary citizens to fend for themselves trained a spotlight on the unfairness of fiscal inequality. The issue gained traction during the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in 2011 and during the successful U.S. Senate campaign of former HLS Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/05\/the-women-who-questioned-wall-street\/\">Elizabeth Warren<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>What was once viewed as a fringe political issue is now at the heart of the angry, populist rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign. Personified by outsider candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, economic <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">inequality<\/a> has resonated with broad swaths of nervous voters on both the left and right.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Robert Putnam<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawrence Katz, the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), says the most damaging aspects of the gap between the top 1 percent of Americans and everyone else involve the increasing economic and political power that the very rich wield over society, along with a growing educational divide, and escalating social segregation in which the elites live in literal and figurative gated communities.<\/p>\n<p>If the rate of economic mobility \u2014 the ability of people to improve their economic station \u2014 was higher, he says, our growing income disparity might not be such a problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what we have been seeing is rising inequality with stagnant mobility, which means that the consequences of where you start out, whether it\u2019s in a poor neighborhood, whether it\u2019s from a single-parent household, are more consequential today than in the past. Your ZIP code and the exact characteristics of your parents seem to matter more,\u201d said Katz. \u201cAnd that\u2019s quite disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The growing gap between the rich and the rest isn\u2019t a matter of who can afford a yacht or a Manhattan penthouse, analysts say. Rather, it\u2019s the crippling nature of these disparities as they touch nearly every aspect of daily lives, from career prospects and educational opportunities to health risks and neighborhood safety.<\/p>\n<p>The widening income gap also has fueled a class-based social disconnect that has produced inequitable educational results. \u201cNow, your family income matters more than your own abilities in terms of whether you complete college,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/07\/robert-putnam-receives-national-humanities-medal\/\">Robert Putnam<\/a>, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). \u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p><em>Second in a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/topic\/inequality\/\">series<\/a> on what Harvard scholars are doing to identify and understand inequality, in seeking solutions to one of America\u2019s most vexing problems.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can\u2019t have both,\u201d Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said decades ago during another period of pronounced inequality in America.<\/p>\n<p>Echoing the concern of the Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate, over the past 30 years myriad forces have battered the United States\u2019 legendary reputation as the world\u2019s \u201cland of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 global economic meltdown that eventually bailed out\u00a0Wall Street financiers but left ordinary citizens to fend for themselves trained a spotlight on the unfairness of fiscal inequality. The issue gained traction during the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in 2011 and during the successful U.S. Senate campaign of former HLS Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/05\/the-women-who-questioned-wall-street\/\">Elizabeth Warren<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>What was once viewed as a fringe political issue is now at the heart of the angry, populist rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign. Personified by outsider candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, economic <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">inequality<\/a> has resonated with broad swaths of nervous voters on both the left and right.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Robert Putnam<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawrence Katz, the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), says the most damaging aspects of the gap between the top 1 percent of Americans and everyone else involve the increasing economic and political power that the very rich wield over society, along with a growing educational divide, and escalating social segregation in which the elites live in literal and figurative gated communities.<\/p>\n<p>If the rate of economic mobility \u2014 the ability of people to improve their economic station \u2014 was higher, he says, our growing income disparity might not be such a problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what we have been seeing is rising inequality with stagnant mobility, which means that the consequences of where you start out, whether it\u2019s in a poor neighborhood, whether it\u2019s from a single-parent household, are more consequential today than in the past. Your ZIP code and the exact characteristics of your parents seem to matter more,\u201d said Katz. \u201cAnd that\u2019s quite disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The growing gap between the rich and the rest isn\u2019t a matter of who can afford a yacht or a Manhattan penthouse, analysts say. Rather, it\u2019s the crippling nature of these disparities as they touch nearly every aspect of daily lives, from career prospects and educational opportunities to health risks and neighborhood safety.<\/p>\n<p>The widening income gap also has fueled a class-based social disconnect that has produced inequitable educational results. \u201cNow, your family income matters more than your own abilities in terms of whether you complete college,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/07\/robert-putnam-receives-national-humanities-medal\/\">Robert Putnam<\/a>, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). \u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p><em>Second in a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/topic\/inequality\/\">series<\/a> on what Harvard scholars are doing to identify and understand inequality, in seeking solutions to one of America\u2019s most vexing problems.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can\u2019t have both,\u201d Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said decades ago during another period of pronounced inequality in America.<\/p>\n<p>Echoing the concern of the Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate, over the past 30 years myriad forces have battered the United States\u2019 legendary reputation as the world\u2019s \u201cland of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 global economic meltdown that eventually bailed out\u00a0Wall Street financiers but left ordinary citizens to fend for themselves trained a spotlight on the unfairness of fiscal inequality. The issue gained traction during the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in 2011 and during the successful U.S. Senate campaign of former HLS Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/05\/the-women-who-questioned-wall-street\/\">Elizabeth Warren<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>What was once viewed as a fringe political issue is now at the heart of the angry, populist rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign. Personified by outsider candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, economic <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">inequality<\/a> has resonated with broad swaths of nervous voters on both the left and right.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Robert Putnam<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawrence Katz, the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), says the most damaging aspects of the gap between the top 1 percent of Americans and everyone else involve the increasing economic and political power that the very rich wield over society, along with a growing educational divide, and escalating social segregation in which the elites live in literal and figurative gated communities.<\/p>\n<p>If the rate of economic mobility \u2014 the ability of people to improve their economic station \u2014 was higher, he says, our growing income disparity might not be such a problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what we have been seeing is rising inequality with stagnant mobility, which means that the consequences of where you start out, whether it\u2019s in a poor neighborhood, whether it\u2019s from a single-parent household, are more consequential today than in the past. Your ZIP code and the exact characteristics of your parents seem to matter more,\u201d said Katz. \u201cAnd that\u2019s quite disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The growing gap between the rich and the rest isn\u2019t a matter of who can afford a yacht or a Manhattan penthouse, analysts say. Rather, it\u2019s the crippling nature of these disparities as they touch nearly every aspect of daily lives, from career prospects and educational opportunities to health risks and neighborhood safety.<\/p>\n<p>The widening income gap also has fueled a class-based social disconnect that has produced inequitable educational results. \u201cNow, your family income matters more than your own abilities in terms of whether you complete college,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/07\/robert-putnam-receives-national-humanities-medal\/\">Robert Putnam<\/a>, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). \u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"right","id":179069,"caption":"Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/600-theda-skocpol-inequality.jpg","alt":"Theda Skocpol","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/600-theda-skocpol-inequality.jpg\" alt=\"Theda Skocpol\" class=\"wp-image-179069\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/600-theda-skocpol-inequality.jpg\" alt=\"Theda Skocpol\" class=\"wp-image-179069\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/600-theda-skocpol-inequality.jpg\" alt=\"Theda Skocpol\" class=\"wp-image-179069\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Economic inequality also feeds the\u00a0political kind, driving everything from the actions of our political representatives to the quality and quantity of civic engagement, such as voting and community-based public service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s long been known that the better educated, those with higher incomes, participate more\u201d in politics on \u201ceverything from voting to contacting politicians to donating,\u201d said Theda Skocpol, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at FAS. \u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Money eases access<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s unlacing of campaign-finance laws that limited how much donors could give candidates or affiliate organizations, coupled with allowing donors to shield their identities from public scrutiny, have spawned a financial arms race that requires viable presidential candidates, for example, to solicit donors constantly in a quest to raise $1 billion or more to win.<\/p>\n<p>Given that rulebook, it\u2019s hardly surprising that the political supporters with the greatest access to candidates are usually the very wealthy. Backers with both influence and access often help to shape the political agenda. The result is a kind of velvet rope that can keep those without economic clout on the sidelines, out of the conversation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn the current election cycle, 158 families have given half the money to candidates.\"<br \/>\n\u2014 Lawrence Lessig<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cSomething like the carried-interest provision in the tax code, when you explain it to ordinary citizens, they don\u2019t like the idea that income earned by investing other people\u2019s money should be taxed at a lower rate than regular wage and salary income. It\u2019s not popular in some broad, polling sense. But many politicians probably don\u2019t realize it at all because \u2026 politicians spend a lot of their time asking people to give money to them [who] don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea to change that,\u201d said Skocpol. \u201cThere\u2019s a real danger that, as wealth and income are more and more concentrated toward the top, it does become a vicious circle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoney has corrupted our political process,\u201d said Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at HLS. In Congress, he said, \u201cThey focus too much on the tiny slice, 1 percent, who are funding elections. In the current election cycle [as of October], 158 families have given half the money to candidates. That\u2019s a banana republic democracy; that\u2019s not an American democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lessig was so unhappy with how political campaigns are funded that he briefly ran for president on the issue. Reviewing his efforts during a Harvard forum on the topic in November, he described his candidacy as a referendum on the campaign-finance system, but also on the need to reform Congress, which he called a \u201cbroken and corrupted institution\u201d undercut by big donors and gerrymandered election districts.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How we got here<\/h2>\n<p>Christopher \u201cSandy\u201d Jencks, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at HKS, believes that the past 30 years of rising American inequality can be attributed to three key factors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decline in jobs and employment rates for less-skilled workers, which has increased the number of households with children but no male breadwinner.<\/li>\n<li>The demand for college graduates outpacing the pool of job candidates, adding to the gap between the middle class and upper-middle class.<\/li>\n<li>The share of income gains flowing to the top 1 percent of earners doubling as a result of deregulation, globalization, and speculation in the financial services industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The U.S. government does \u201cconsiderably less\u201d than comparable democracies to even out disposable family incomes, Jencks says. And current state and local tax policies \u201cactually increase income inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the costs and risks of capitalism seem to have been shifted largely to those who work rather than those who invest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Compounding the economic imbalance is the unlikely prospect that those at the bottom can ever improve their lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have some of the lowest rates of upward mobility of any developed country in the world,\u201d said Nathaniel Hendren, an associate professor of economics at FAS who has studied intergenerational mobility and how inequality transmits across generations.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Economic inequality also feeds the\u00a0political kind, driving everything from the actions of our political representatives to the quality and quantity of civic engagement, such as voting and community-based public service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s long been known that the better educated, those with higher incomes, participate more\u201d in politics on \u201ceverything from voting to contacting politicians to donating,\u201d said Theda Skocpol, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at FAS. \u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Money eases access<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s unlacing of campaign-finance laws that limited how much donors could give candidates or affiliate organizations, coupled with allowing donors to shield their identities from public scrutiny, have spawned a financial arms race that requires viable presidential candidates, for example, to solicit donors constantly in a quest to raise $1 billion or more to win.<\/p>\n<p>Given that rulebook, it\u2019s hardly surprising that the political supporters with the greatest access to candidates are usually the very wealthy. Backers with both influence and access often help to shape the political agenda. The result is a kind of velvet rope that can keep those without economic clout on the sidelines, out of the conversation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn the current election cycle, 158 families have given half the money to candidates.\"<br \/>\n\u2014 Lawrence Lessig<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cSomething like the carried-interest provision in the tax code, when you explain it to ordinary citizens, they don\u2019t like the idea that income earned by investing other people\u2019s money should be taxed at a lower rate than regular wage and salary income. It\u2019s not popular in some broad, polling sense. But many politicians probably don\u2019t realize it at all because \u2026 politicians spend a lot of their time asking people to give money to them [who] don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea to change that,\u201d said Skocpol. \u201cThere\u2019s a real danger that, as wealth and income are more and more concentrated toward the top, it does become a vicious circle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoney has corrupted our political process,\u201d said Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at HLS. In Congress, he said, \u201cThey focus too much on the tiny slice, 1 percent, who are funding elections. In the current election cycle [as of October], 158 families have given half the money to candidates. That\u2019s a banana republic democracy; that\u2019s not an American democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lessig was so unhappy with how political campaigns are funded that he briefly ran for president on the issue. Reviewing his efforts during a Harvard forum on the topic in November, he described his candidacy as a referendum on the campaign-finance system, but also on the need to reform Congress, which he called a \u201cbroken and corrupted institution\u201d undercut by big donors and gerrymandered election districts.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How we got here<\/h2>\n<p>Christopher \u201cSandy\u201d Jencks, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at HKS, believes that the past 30 years of rising American inequality can be attributed to three key factors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decline in jobs and employment rates for less-skilled workers, which has increased the number of households with children but no male breadwinner.<\/li>\n<li>The demand for college graduates outpacing the pool of job candidates, adding to the gap between the middle class and upper-middle class.<\/li>\n<li>The share of income gains flowing to the top 1 percent of earners doubling as a result of deregulation, globalization, and speculation in the financial services industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The U.S. government does \u201cconsiderably less\u201d than comparable democracies to even out disposable family incomes, Jencks says. And current state and local tax policies \u201cactually increase income inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the costs and risks of capitalism seem to have been shifted largely to those who work rather than those who invest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Compounding the economic imbalance is the unlikely prospect that those at the bottom can ever improve their lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have some of the lowest rates of upward mobility of any developed country in the world,\u201d said Nathaniel Hendren, an associate professor of economics at FAS who has studied intergenerational mobility and how inequality transmits across generations.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Economic inequality also feeds the\u00a0political kind, driving everything from the actions of our political representatives to the quality and quantity of civic engagement, such as voting and community-based public service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s long been known that the better educated, those with higher incomes, participate more\u201d in politics on \u201ceverything from voting to contacting politicians to donating,\u201d said Theda Skocpol, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at FAS. \u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Money eases access<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s unlacing of campaign-finance laws that limited how much donors could give candidates or affiliate organizations, coupled with allowing donors to shield their identities from public scrutiny, have spawned a financial arms race that requires viable presidential candidates, for example, to solicit donors constantly in a quest to raise $1 billion or more to win.<\/p>\n<p>Given that rulebook, it\u2019s hardly surprising that the political supporters with the greatest access to candidates are usually the very wealthy. Backers with both influence and access often help to shape the political agenda. The result is a kind of velvet rope that can keep those without economic clout on the sidelines, out of the conversation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn the current election cycle, 158 families have given half the money to candidates.\"<br \/>\n\u2014 Lawrence Lessig<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cSomething like the carried-interest provision in the tax code, when you explain it to ordinary citizens, they don\u2019t like the idea that income earned by investing other people\u2019s money should be taxed at a lower rate than regular wage and salary income. It\u2019s not popular in some broad, polling sense. But many politicians probably don\u2019t realize it at all because \u2026 politicians spend a lot of their time asking people to give money to them [who] don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea to change that,\u201d said Skocpol. \u201cThere\u2019s a real danger that, as wealth and income are more and more concentrated toward the top, it does become a vicious circle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoney has corrupted our political process,\u201d said Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at HLS. In Congress, he said, \u201cThey focus too much on the tiny slice, 1 percent, who are funding elections. In the current election cycle [as of October], 158 families have given half the money to candidates. That\u2019s a banana republic democracy; that\u2019s not an American democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lessig was so unhappy with how political campaigns are funded that he briefly ran for president on the issue. Reviewing his efforts during a Harvard forum on the topic in November, he described his candidacy as a referendum on the campaign-finance system, but also on the need to reform Congress, which he called a \u201cbroken and corrupted institution\u201d undercut by big donors and gerrymandered election districts.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How we got here<\/h2>\n<p>Christopher \u201cSandy\u201d Jencks, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at HKS, believes that the past 30 years of rising American inequality can be attributed to three key factors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decline in jobs and employment rates for less-skilled workers, which has increased the number of households with children but no male breadwinner.<\/li>\n<li>The demand for college graduates outpacing the pool of job candidates, adding to the gap between the middle class and upper-middle class.<\/li>\n<li>The share of income gains flowing to the top 1 percent of earners doubling as a result of deregulation, globalization, and speculation in the financial services industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The U.S. government does \u201cconsiderably less\u201d than comparable democracies to even out disposable family incomes, Jencks says. And current state and local tax policies \u201cactually increase income inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the costs and risks of capitalism seem to have been shifted largely to those who work rather than those who invest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Compounding the economic imbalance is the unlikely prospect that those at the bottom can ever improve their lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have some of the lowest rates of upward mobility of any developed country in the world,\u201d said Nathaniel Hendren, an associate professor of economics at FAS who has studied intergenerational mobility and how inequality transmits across generations.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"center","id":179023,"caption":"Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households\">CBPP.org<\/a>","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/02-income-gains-households-b.gif","alt":"Income Gains Households","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/02-income-gains-households-b.gif\" alt=\"Income Gains Households\" class=\"wp-image-179023\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households">CBPP.org<\/a>\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/02-income-gains-households-b.gif\" alt=\"Income Gains Households\" class=\"wp-image-179023\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households">CBPP.org<\/a>\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/02-income-gains-households-b.gif\" alt=\"Income Gains Households\" class=\"wp-image-179023\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households">CBPP.org<\/a>\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Hendren, along with Harvard economists Katz and Raj Chetty, now at Stanford University, looked at the lasting effects of moving children to better neighborhoods as part of Moving to Opportunity, a short-lived federal housing program from the \u201990s. Their analysis, published in May, found that the longer children are exposed to better environments, the better they do economically in the future. Whichever city or state children grow up in also radically affects whether they\u2019ll move out of poverty, he said.<\/p>\n<p>For children in parts of the Midwest, the Northeast, and the West, upward mobility rates are high. But in the South and portions of the Rust Belt, rates are very low. For example, a child born in Iowa into a household making less than $25,000 a year has an 18 percent chance to move into the upper 20 percent of income strata over a lifetime. But a child born in Atlanta or Charlotte, N.C., has only a 4 percent chance of moving up, their study found.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Hendren, along with Harvard economists Katz and Raj Chetty, now at Stanford University, looked at the lasting effects of moving children to better neighborhoods as part of Moving to Opportunity, a short-lived federal housing program from the \u201990s. Their analysis, published in May, found that the longer children are exposed to better environments, the better they do economically in the future. Whichever city or state children grow up in also radically affects whether they\u2019ll move out of poverty, he said.<\/p>\n<p>For children in parts of the Midwest, the Northeast, and the West, upward mobility rates are high. But in the South and portions of the Rust Belt, rates are very low. For example, a child born in Iowa into a household making less than $25,000 a year has an 18 percent chance to move into the upper 20 percent of income strata over a lifetime. But a child born in Atlanta or Charlotte, N.C., has only a 4 percent chance of moving up, their study found.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Hendren, along with Harvard economists Katz and Raj Chetty, now at Stanford University, looked at the lasting effects of moving children to better neighborhoods as part of Moving to Opportunity, a short-lived federal housing program from the \u201990s. Their analysis, published in May, found that the longer children are exposed to better environments, the better they do economically in the future. Whichever city or state children grow up in also radically affects whether they\u2019ll move out of poverty, he said.<\/p>\n<p>For children in parts of the Midwest, the Northeast, and the West, upward mobility rates are high. But in the South and portions of the Rust Belt, rates are very low. For example, a child born in Iowa into a household making less than $25,000 a year has an 18 percent chance to move into the upper 20 percent of income strata over a lifetime. But a child born in Atlanta or Charlotte, N.C., has only a 4 percent chance of moving up, their study found.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"center","id":179236,"caption":"Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_26_01_gazette_mobility_graphic1.jpg","alt":"Economic mobility","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_26_01_gazette_mobility_graphic1.jpg\" alt=\"Economic mobility\" class=\"wp-image-179236\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_26_01_gazette_mobility_graphic1.jpg\" alt=\"Economic mobility\" class=\"wp-image-179236\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_26_01_gazette_mobility_graphic1.jpg\" alt=\"Economic mobility\" class=\"wp-image-179236\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>What unites areas of low mobility, Hendren says, are broken family structures, reduced levels of civic and community engagement, lower-quality K-12 education, greater racial and economic segregation, and broader income inequality.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, 90 percent of American workers have seen their wages stall while their costs of living continue to rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at the data, it\u2019s sobering. Median household income when last reported in 2013 was at a level first attained in 1989, adjusting for inflation. That\u2019s a long time to go without any gains,\u201d said Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Wage inequality is on the rise for both genders. Within that range, the gap between men and women remains a hot-button issue despite gains by women in the past three decades. Broadly, the ratio of median earnings for women increased from 0.56 to 0.78 between 1970 and 2010.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>What unites areas of low mobility, Hendren says, are broken family structures, reduced levels of civic and community engagement, lower-quality K-12 education, greater racial and economic segregation, and broader income inequality.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, 90 percent of American workers have seen their wages stall while their costs of living continue to rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at the data, it\u2019s sobering. Median household income when last reported in 2013 was at a level first attained in 1989, adjusting for inflation. That\u2019s a long time to go without any gains,\u201d said Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Wage inequality is on the rise for both genders. Within that range, the gap between men and women remains a hot-button issue despite gains by women in the past three decades. Broadly, the ratio of median earnings for women increased from 0.56 to 0.78 between 1970 and 2010.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>What unites areas of low mobility, Hendren says, are broken family structures, reduced levels of civic and community engagement, lower-quality K-12 education, greater racial and economic segregation, and broader income inequality.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, 90 percent of American workers have seen their wages stall while their costs of living continue to rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at the data, it\u2019s sobering. Median household income when last reported in 2013 was at a level first attained in 1989, adjusting for inflation. That\u2019s a long time to go without any gains,\u201d said Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Wage inequality is on the rise for both genders. Within that range, the gap between men and women remains a hot-button issue despite gains by women in the past three decades. Broadly, the ratio of median earnings for women increased from 0.56 to 0.78 between 1970 and 2010.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"left","id":179190,"caption":"Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/\">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_08_02_gazette_economy_politics_graphic_922x600.png","alt":"Median weekly earnings chart","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_08_02_gazette_economy_politics_graphic_922x600.png\" alt=\"Median weekly earnings chart\" class=\"wp-image-179190\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_08_02_gazette_economy_politics_graphic_922x600.png\" alt=\"Median weekly earnings chart\" class=\"wp-image-179190\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_08_02_gazette_economy_politics_graphic_922x600.png\" alt=\"Median weekly earnings chart\" class=\"wp-image-179190\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>But according to Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at FAS, the gender earnings gap is not a constant, varying widely by occupation and age. While women in their late 20s earn about 92 percent of what their male counterparts earn, women in their early 50s earn just 71 cents on the dollar that the average man makes. For some career paths, like pharmacists, veterinarians, and optometrists, corporatization has closed the gap between men and women.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, wiping away the gender pay gap isn\u2019t a cure-all for the larger issues of inequality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you reduce gender inequality to zero, you\u2019ve closed inequality \u2026 by a very small percent,\u201d said Goldin. \u201cI\u2019m not saying there aren\u2019t things that we can\u2019t fix, but I am telling you, without a doubt, they\u2019re going to move the lever by very little.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Underinvestment in \u201cthe commons\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Rivkin says that the pressures of globalization and technological change and the weakening of labor unions have had a major impact. But he disagrees that political favoritism toward business interests and away from ordinary citizens is the primary reason for burgeoning inequality. Rather, he says that sustained underinvestment by government and business in \"the commons\u201d \u2014 the institutions and services that offer wide community benefits, like schools and roads \u2014 has been especially detrimental.<\/p>\n<p>Last spring, HBS conducted an alumni survey for its annual U.S. Competitiveness Project research series, probing respondents for their views on the current and future state of American businesses, the prospects of dominating the global marketplace, and the likelihood that the resulting prosperity would be shared more evenly among citizens.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Theda Skocpol<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The survey findings, released in September, showed that most HBS alumni were skeptical that living standards would rise more equitably soon, given existing policies and practices. A majority said that inequality and related issues like rising poverty, limited economic mobility, and middle-class stagnation were not only social ills, but problems that affected their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy sense is that a larger and larger number of business leaders are waking up to the idea that issues of inequality, and particularly lack of shared prosperity, have to be addressed for the sake of business,\u201d said Rivkin, the project\u2019s co-chair.<\/p>\n<p>The surging power of the very wealthy in America now rivals levels last seen in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, analysts say. One difference, however, is that the grotesque chasm between that era\u2019s robber barons and tenement dwellers led to major social and policy reforms that are still with us, including labor rights, women\u2019s suffrage, and federal regulatory agencies to oversee trade, banking, food, and drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Hendren said there\u2019s no less chance today of rising or falling along the income spectrum than there was 25 years ago. \u201cThe chances of moving up or down the ladder are the same,\" he said, \"but the way we think about inequality is that the rungs on the ladder have gotten wider. The difference between being at the top versus the bottom of the income distribution is wider, so the consequences of being born to a poor family in dollar terms are wider.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What price inaction?<\/h2>\n<p>Unless America\u2019s policymakers begin to chip away at the underlying elements of systemic inequality, the costs to the nation will be profound, analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we will pay many prices. We will continue to have divisive politics. We won\u2019t make the investments we need to provide the majority of kids with a better life, and that would be really not fulfilling,\u201d said Katz.<\/p>\n<p>Partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., has diminished the effectiveness of government \u2014 perhaps the most essential and powerful tool for addressing inequality and citizens' needs. By adopting a political narrative that government should not and cannot effectively solve problems, legislative inaction results in policy inaction.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>But according to Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at FAS, the gender earnings gap is not a constant, varying widely by occupation and age. While women in their late 20s earn about 92 percent of what their male counterparts earn, women in their early 50s earn just 71 cents on the dollar that the average man makes. For some career paths, like pharmacists, veterinarians, and optometrists, corporatization has closed the gap between men and women.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, wiping away the gender pay gap isn\u2019t a cure-all for the larger issues of inequality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you reduce gender inequality to zero, you\u2019ve closed inequality \u2026 by a very small percent,\u201d said Goldin. \u201cI\u2019m not saying there aren\u2019t things that we can\u2019t fix, but I am telling you, without a doubt, they\u2019re going to move the lever by very little.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Underinvestment in \u201cthe commons\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Rivkin says that the pressures of globalization and technological change and the weakening of labor unions have had a major impact. But he disagrees that political favoritism toward business interests and away from ordinary citizens is the primary reason for burgeoning inequality. Rather, he says that sustained underinvestment by government and business in \"the commons\u201d \u2014 the institutions and services that offer wide community benefits, like schools and roads \u2014 has been especially detrimental.<\/p>\n<p>Last spring, HBS conducted an alumni survey for its annual U.S. Competitiveness Project research series, probing respondents for their views on the current and future state of American businesses, the prospects of dominating the global marketplace, and the likelihood that the resulting prosperity would be shared more evenly among citizens.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Theda Skocpol<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The survey findings, released in September, showed that most HBS alumni were skeptical that living standards would rise more equitably soon, given existing policies and practices. A majority said that inequality and related issues like rising poverty, limited economic mobility, and middle-class stagnation were not only social ills, but problems that affected their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy sense is that a larger and larger number of business leaders are waking up to the idea that issues of inequality, and particularly lack of shared prosperity, have to be addressed for the sake of business,\u201d said Rivkin, the project\u2019s co-chair.<\/p>\n<p>The surging power of the very wealthy in America now rivals levels last seen in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, analysts say. One difference, however, is that the grotesque chasm between that era\u2019s robber barons and tenement dwellers led to major social and policy reforms that are still with us, including labor rights, women\u2019s suffrage, and federal regulatory agencies to oversee trade, banking, food, and drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Hendren said there\u2019s no less chance today of rising or falling along the income spectrum than there was 25 years ago. \u201cThe chances of moving up or down the ladder are the same,\" he said, \"but the way we think about inequality is that the rungs on the ladder have gotten wider. The difference between being at the top versus the bottom of the income distribution is wider, so the consequences of being born to a poor family in dollar terms are wider.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What price inaction?<\/h2>\n<p>Unless America\u2019s policymakers begin to chip away at the underlying elements of systemic inequality, the costs to the nation will be profound, analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we will pay many prices. We will continue to have divisive politics. We won\u2019t make the investments we need to provide the majority of kids with a better life, and that would be really not fulfilling,\u201d said Katz.<\/p>\n<p>Partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., has diminished the effectiveness of government \u2014 perhaps the most essential and powerful tool for addressing inequality and citizens' needs. By adopting a political narrative that government should not and cannot effectively solve problems, legislative inaction results in policy inaction.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>But according to Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at FAS, the gender earnings gap is not a constant, varying widely by occupation and age. While women in their late 20s earn about 92 percent of what their male counterparts earn, women in their early 50s earn just 71 cents on the dollar that the average man makes. For some career paths, like pharmacists, veterinarians, and optometrists, corporatization has closed the gap between men and women.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, wiping away the gender pay gap isn\u2019t a cure-all for the larger issues of inequality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you reduce gender inequality to zero, you\u2019ve closed inequality \u2026 by a very small percent,\u201d said Goldin. \u201cI\u2019m not saying there aren\u2019t things that we can\u2019t fix, but I am telling you, without a doubt, they\u2019re going to move the lever by very little.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Underinvestment in \u201cthe commons\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Rivkin says that the pressures of globalization and technological change and the weakening of labor unions have had a major impact. But he disagrees that political favoritism toward business interests and away from ordinary citizens is the primary reason for burgeoning inequality. Rather, he says that sustained underinvestment by government and business in \"the commons\u201d \u2014 the institutions and services that offer wide community benefits, like schools and roads \u2014 has been especially detrimental.<\/p>\n<p>Last spring, HBS conducted an alumni survey for its annual U.S. Competitiveness Project research series, probing respondents for their views on the current and future state of American businesses, the prospects of dominating the global marketplace, and the likelihood that the resulting prosperity would be shared more evenly among citizens.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Theda Skocpol<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The survey findings, released in September, showed that most HBS alumni were skeptical that living standards would rise more equitably soon, given existing policies and practices. A majority said that inequality and related issues like rising poverty, limited economic mobility, and middle-class stagnation were not only social ills, but problems that affected their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy sense is that a larger and larger number of business leaders are waking up to the idea that issues of inequality, and particularly lack of shared prosperity, have to be addressed for the sake of business,\u201d said Rivkin, the project\u2019s co-chair.<\/p>\n<p>The surging power of the very wealthy in America now rivals levels last seen in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, analysts say. One difference, however, is that the grotesque chasm between that era\u2019s robber barons and tenement dwellers led to major social and policy reforms that are still with us, including labor rights, women\u2019s suffrage, and federal regulatory agencies to oversee trade, banking, food, and drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Hendren said there\u2019s no less chance today of rising or falling along the income spectrum than there was 25 years ago. \u201cThe chances of moving up or down the ladder are the same,\" he said, \"but the way we think about inequality is that the rungs on the ladder have gotten wider. The difference between being at the top versus the bottom of the income distribution is wider, so the consequences of being born to a poor family in dollar terms are wider.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What price inaction?<\/h2>\n<p>Unless America\u2019s policymakers begin to chip away at the underlying elements of systemic inequality, the costs to the nation will be profound, analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we will pay many prices. We will continue to have divisive politics. We won\u2019t make the investments we need to provide the majority of kids with a better life, and that would be really not fulfilling,\u201d said Katz.<\/p>\n<p>Partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., has diminished the effectiveness of government \u2014 perhaps the most essential and powerful tool for addressing inequality and citizens' needs. By adopting a political narrative that government should not and cannot effectively solve problems, legislative inaction results in policy inaction.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"left","id":178900,"caption":"Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/073115_katz_014_600x401.jpg","alt":"","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/073115_katz_014_600x401.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-178900\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/073115_katz_014_600x401.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-178900\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/073115_katz_014_600x401.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-178900\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a strategy\u201d to justify starving government of resources, which in turn weakens it and makes it less attractive as a tool to accomplish big things, said Skocpol. \u201cIn an everybody-for-themselves situation, it is the better-educated and the wealthy who can protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Surveying the landscape, Katz sees reasons to be both hopeful and worried.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe optimism is that there are regions of the U.S., metropolitan areas that have tremendous upward mobility. So we do have models that work. We do have programs like Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit that work pretty well. I think that if national policy more approximated the upper third of state and local policies, the U.S. would have a lot of hope,\u201d said Katz. \u201cMy pessimistic take would be that if you look at two-thirds of America, things are not improving in the way we would like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Putnam is heartened that inequality has been widely recognized as a major problem and is no longer treated as a fringe political issue.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can be done?<\/h2>\n<p>Jencks says there are many steps the federal government could take \u2014 if the political will existed to do so \u2014 to slow down or reverse inequality, like increasing the minimum wage, revising the tax code to tax corporate profits and investments more, reducing the debt burden on college students, and improving K-12 education so more students are better prepared for college and for personal advancement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStrong regulation and strong support for collective control over the things that society values is much more prevalent in societies that have lower levels of inequality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Though labor rights have been eroding for decades, Benjamin Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at HLS, still thinks that unions could provide an unusual way to help equalize political power nationally. Unions used to wield both economic and political clout, but legislative and court decisions reduced their effectiveness as economic actors, cutting their political influence as well. At the same time, campaign finance reform to limit the influence of wealth on politics has failed.<\/p>\n<p>To restore some balance, Sachs suggests \u201cunbundling\u201d unions\u2019 political and economic activities, allowing them to serve as political organizing vehicles for low- and middle-income Americans, even those whom a union may not represent for collective bargaining purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe risk that economic inequalities will produce political ones \u2026 has led to several generations of campaign finance regulation designed to get money out of politics. But these efforts have not succeeded,\u201d Sachs wrote in a 2013 Yale Law Review article. \u201cRather than struggling to find new ways to restrict political spending by the wealthy \u2026 the unbundled union, in which political organization is liberated from collective bargaining, constitutes one promising component of such a broader attempt to improve representational equality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, given the historic labor and wage trend lines, Goldin said the economic forces that perpetuate unequal wages \u2014 and inequality more broadly \u2014 won\u2019t simply disappear even with a spate of new laws.<\/p>\n<p>[gz_sidebar align=\"right\"]<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Possible solutions to economic and political inequality:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase economic mobility<\/li>\n<li>Tax corporate profits, investments more<\/li>\n<li>Raise the minimum wage<\/li>\n<li>Cut the debts of college graduates<\/li>\n<li>Improve K-12 education<\/li>\n<li>Reduce the influence of money in politics<\/li>\n<li>Even out disposable family incomes<\/li>\n<li>Tax carried interest at a higher rate<\/li>\n<li>Make business taxes a compliance issue<\/li>\n<li>Mentor low-income children<\/li>\n<li>Jump-start vocational education<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/gz_sidebar]<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is na\u00efve of most individuals to think that for everything there is something that government can legislate and regulate and impose that makes life better for everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even so, with Congress stalled over fresh policies, analysts say that much of the innovation concerning inequality has moved to state and local levels, where partisanship is less calcified and the needs of constituents are more evident.<\/p>\n<p>In Oregon and California, for example, residents will be automatically registered to vote upon turning 18, a move that Skocpol says should bolster civic participation and provide protection from onerous new voter-identification laws.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s clear that investing in children and their education pays lifelong dividends for them, those gains take 20 years to be realized, said Katz. That\u2019s why it\u2019s critical that their parents get help and live in less vulnerable situations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is certainly evidence that if we reduce the degree of economic and racial and ethnic segregation of our communities, we can move in that direction,\u201d said Katz, who is working on an experiment to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in New York City to help younger workers without children who are struggling to break into the labor market.<\/p>\n<p>Changes to the minimum wage, the tax system, and the treatment of carried interest \u201care all debates in which our society should engage,\u201d said Rivkin, who cautioned that those would be hard-fought political battles that wouldn\u2019t yield results for at least a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Of course industry needs to run its businesses productively and profitably, but it can do so without harming \u201cthe commons,\u201d Rivkin said. \u201cBusiness has been very effective at pursuing its narrow self-interest in looking for special tax breaks. I think that kind of behavior just needs to stop.\u201d Drawing on an idea from HBS Finance Professor Mihir Desai, Rivkin suggests that businesses treat their tax responsibilities as a compliance function rather than as a profit center. That money could then go back into investment in \u201cthe commons,\u201d where \u201clots of common ground\u201d exists\u00a0among\u00a0business, labor, policymakers, educators, and others.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe businesses should be working with the local community college to train the workers whom they would love to hire; the university should be getting together with policymakers to figure out how to get innovations out of the research lab into startups faster; business should work with educators to reinvent the school system,\u201d said Rivkin.<\/p>\n<p>Putnam suggests more widespread mentoring of low-income children who lack the social safety net that upper- and middle-class children enjoy, a topic he explored in his book \u201cOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He recently convened five working groups to develop a series of white papers that will offer overviews of the key challenges in family structure and parenting; early childhood development; K-12 education; vocational, technical, and community colleges; and community institutions. The papers will be shared with mayors and leaders in churches, nonprofits, and community organizations across the nation, where much of the reform effort is taking place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an increasing sense that this is a big deal, that we\u2019re moving toward an America that none of us has ever lived in, a world of two Americas, a completely economically divided country,\u201d said Putnam. \u201cThat\u2019s not an America I want my grandchildren to grow up in. And I think there are lots of people in America who, if they stop and think about it, would say, \u2018No, that\u2019s not really us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Illustration by Kathleen M.G. Howlett.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Next Tuesday: Inequality in education<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a strategy\u201d to justify starving government of resources, which in turn weakens it and makes it less attractive as a tool to accomplish big things, said Skocpol. \u201cIn an everybody-for-themselves situation, it is the better-educated and the wealthy who can protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Surveying the landscape, Katz sees reasons to be both hopeful and worried.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe optimism is that there are regions of the U.S., metropolitan areas that have tremendous upward mobility. So we do have models that work. We do have programs like Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit that work pretty well. I think that if national policy more approximated the upper third of state and local policies, the U.S. would have a lot of hope,\u201d said Katz. \u201cMy pessimistic take would be that if you look at two-thirds of America, things are not improving in the way we would like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Putnam is heartened that inequality has been widely recognized as a major problem and is no longer treated as a fringe political issue.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can be done?<\/h2>\n<p>Jencks says there are many steps the federal government could take \u2014 if the political will existed to do so \u2014 to slow down or reverse inequality, like increasing the minimum wage, revising the tax code to tax corporate profits and investments more, reducing the debt burden on college students, and improving K-12 education so more students are better prepared for college and for personal advancement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStrong regulation and strong support for collective control over the things that society values is much more prevalent in societies that have lower levels of inequality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Though labor rights have been eroding for decades, Benjamin Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at HLS, still thinks that unions could provide an unusual way to help equalize political power nationally. Unions used to wield both economic and political clout, but legislative and court decisions reduced their effectiveness as economic actors, cutting their political influence as well. At the same time, campaign finance reform to limit the influence of wealth on politics has failed.<\/p>\n<p>To restore some balance, Sachs suggests \u201cunbundling\u201d unions\u2019 political and economic activities, allowing them to serve as political organizing vehicles for low- and middle-income Americans, even those whom a union may not represent for collective bargaining purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe risk that economic inequalities will produce political ones \u2026 has led to several generations of campaign finance regulation designed to get money out of politics. But these efforts have not succeeded,\u201d Sachs wrote in a 2013 Yale Law Review article. \u201cRather than struggling to find new ways to restrict political spending by the wealthy \u2026 the unbundled union, in which political organization is liberated from collective bargaining, constitutes one promising component of such a broader attempt to improve representational equality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, given the historic labor and wage trend lines, Goldin said the economic forces that perpetuate unequal wages \u2014 and inequality more broadly \u2014 won\u2019t simply disappear even with a spate of new laws.<\/p>\n<p>[gz_sidebar align=\"right\"]<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Possible solutions to economic and political inequality:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase economic mobility<\/li>\n<li>Tax corporate profits, investments more<\/li>\n<li>Raise the minimum wage<\/li>\n<li>Cut the debts of college graduates<\/li>\n<li>Improve K-12 education<\/li>\n<li>Reduce the influence of money in politics<\/li>\n<li>Even out disposable family incomes<\/li>\n<li>Tax carried interest at a higher rate<\/li>\n<li>Make business taxes a compliance issue<\/li>\n<li>Mentor low-income children<\/li>\n<li>Jump-start vocational education<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/gz_sidebar]<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is na\u00efve of most individuals to think that for everything there is something that government can legislate and regulate and impose that makes life better for everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even so, with Congress stalled over fresh policies, analysts say that much of the innovation concerning inequality has moved to state and local levels, where partisanship is less calcified and the needs of constituents are more evident.<\/p>\n<p>In Oregon and California, for example, residents will be automatically registered to vote upon turning 18, a move that Skocpol says should bolster civic participation and provide protection from onerous new voter-identification laws.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s clear that investing in children and their education pays lifelong dividends for them, those gains take 20 years to be realized, said Katz. That\u2019s why it\u2019s critical that their parents get help and live in less vulnerable situations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is certainly evidence that if we reduce the degree of economic and racial and ethnic segregation of our communities, we can move in that direction,\u201d said Katz, who is working on an experiment to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in New York City to help younger workers without children who are struggling to break into the labor market.<\/p>\n<p>Changes to the minimum wage, the tax system, and the treatment of carried interest \u201care all debates in which our society should engage,\u201d said Rivkin, who cautioned that those would be hard-fought political battles that wouldn\u2019t yield results for at least a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Of course industry needs to run its businesses productively and profitably, but it can do so without harming \u201cthe commons,\u201d Rivkin said. \u201cBusiness has been very effective at pursuing its narrow self-interest in looking for special tax breaks. I think that kind of behavior just needs to stop.\u201d Drawing on an idea from HBS Finance Professor Mihir Desai, Rivkin suggests that businesses treat their tax responsibilities as a compliance function rather than as a profit center. That money could then go back into investment in \u201cthe commons,\u201d where \u201clots of common ground\u201d exists\u00a0among\u00a0business, labor, policymakers, educators, and others.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe businesses should be working with the local community college to train the workers whom they would love to hire; the university should be getting together with policymakers to figure out how to get innovations out of the research lab into startups faster; business should work with educators to reinvent the school system,\u201d said Rivkin.<\/p>\n<p>Putnam suggests more widespread mentoring of low-income children who lack the social safety net that upper- and middle-class children enjoy, a topic he explored in his book \u201cOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He recently convened five working groups to develop a series of white papers that will offer overviews of the key challenges in family structure and parenting; early childhood development; K-12 education; vocational, technical, and community colleges; and community institutions. The papers will be shared with mayors and leaders in churches, nonprofits, and community organizations across the nation, where much of the reform effort is taking place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an increasing sense that this is a big deal, that we\u2019re moving toward an America that none of us has ever lived in, a world of two Americas, a completely economically divided country,\u201d said Putnam. \u201cThat\u2019s not an America I want my grandchildren to grow up in. And I think there are lots of people in America who, if they stop and think about it, would say, \u2018No, that\u2019s not really us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Illustration by Kathleen M.G. Howlett.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Next Tuesday: Inequality in education<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a strategy\u201d to justify starving government of resources, which in turn weakens it and makes it less attractive as a tool to accomplish big things, said Skocpol. \u201cIn an everybody-for-themselves situation, it is the better-educated and the wealthy who can protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Surveying the landscape, Katz sees reasons to be both hopeful and worried.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe optimism is that there are regions of the U.S., metropolitan areas that have tremendous upward mobility. So we do have models that work. We do have programs like Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit that work pretty well. I think that if national policy more approximated the upper third of state and local policies, the U.S. would have a lot of hope,\u201d said Katz. \u201cMy pessimistic take would be that if you look at two-thirds of America, things are not improving in the way we would like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Putnam is heartened that inequality has been widely recognized as a major problem and is no longer treated as a fringe political issue.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can be done?<\/h2>\n<p>Jencks says there are many steps the federal government could take \u2014 if the political will existed to do so \u2014 to slow down or reverse inequality, like increasing the minimum wage, revising the tax code to tax corporate profits and investments more, reducing the debt burden on college students, and improving K-12 education so more students are better prepared for college and for personal advancement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStrong regulation and strong support for collective control over the things that society values is much more prevalent in societies that have lower levels of inequality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Though labor rights have been eroding for decades, Benjamin Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at HLS, still thinks that unions could provide an unusual way to help equalize political power nationally. Unions used to wield both economic and political clout, but legislative and court decisions reduced their effectiveness as economic actors, cutting their political influence as well. At the same time, campaign finance reform to limit the influence of wealth on politics has failed.<\/p>\n<p>To restore some balance, Sachs suggests \u201cunbundling\u201d unions\u2019 political and economic activities, allowing them to serve as political organizing vehicles for low- and middle-income Americans, even those whom a union may not represent for collective bargaining purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe risk that economic inequalities will produce political ones \u2026 has led to several generations of campaign finance regulation designed to get money out of politics. But these efforts have not succeeded,\u201d Sachs wrote in a 2013 Yale Law Review article. \u201cRather than struggling to find new ways to restrict political spending by the wealthy \u2026 the unbundled union, in which political organization is liberated from collective bargaining, constitutes one promising component of such a broader attempt to improve representational equality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, given the historic labor and wage trend lines, Goldin said the economic forces that perpetuate unequal wages \u2014 and inequality more broadly \u2014 won\u2019t simply disappear even with a spate of new laws.<\/p>\n<p>[gz_sidebar align=\"right\"]<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Possible solutions to economic and political inequality:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase economic mobility<\/li>\n<li>Tax corporate profits, investments more<\/li>\n<li>Raise the minimum wage<\/li>\n<li>Cut the debts of college graduates<\/li>\n<li>Improve K-12 education<\/li>\n<li>Reduce the influence of money in politics<\/li>\n<li>Even out disposable family incomes<\/li>\n<li>Tax carried interest at a higher rate<\/li>\n<li>Make business taxes a compliance issue<\/li>\n<li>Mentor low-income children<\/li>\n<li>Jump-start vocational education<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/gz_sidebar]<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is na\u00efve of most individuals to think that for everything there is something that government can legislate and regulate and impose that makes life better for everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even so, with Congress stalled over fresh policies, analysts say that much of the innovation concerning inequality has moved to state and local levels, where partisanship is less calcified and the needs of constituents are more evident.<\/p>\n<p>In Oregon and California, for example, residents will be automatically registered to vote upon turning 18, a move that Skocpol says should bolster civic participation and provide protection from onerous new voter-identification laws.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s clear that investing in children and their education pays lifelong dividends for them, those gains take 20 years to be realized, said Katz. That\u2019s why it\u2019s critical that their parents get help and live in less vulnerable situations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is certainly evidence that if we reduce the degree of economic and racial and ethnic segregation of our communities, we can move in that direction,\u201d said Katz, who is working on an experiment to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in New York City to help younger workers without children who are struggling to break into the labor market.<\/p>\n<p>Changes to the minimum wage, the tax system, and the treatment of carried interest \u201care all debates in which our society should engage,\u201d said Rivkin, who cautioned that those would be hard-fought political battles that wouldn\u2019t yield results for at least a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Of course industry needs to run its businesses productively and profitably, but it can do so without harming \u201cthe commons,\u201d Rivkin said. \u201cBusiness has been very effective at pursuing its narrow self-interest in looking for special tax breaks. I think that kind of behavior just needs to stop.\u201d Drawing on an idea from HBS Finance Professor Mihir Desai, Rivkin suggests that businesses treat their tax responsibilities as a compliance function rather than as a profit center. That money could then go back into investment in \u201cthe commons,\u201d where \u201clots of common ground\u201d exists\u00a0among\u00a0business, labor, policymakers, educators, and others.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe businesses should be working with the local community college to train the workers whom they would love to hire; the university should be getting together with policymakers to figure out how to get innovations out of the research lab into startups faster; business should work with educators to reinvent the school system,\u201d said Rivkin.<\/p>\n<p>Putnam suggests more widespread mentoring of low-income children who lack the social safety net that upper- and middle-class children enjoy, a topic he explored in his book \u201cOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He recently convened five working groups to develop a series of white papers that will offer overviews of the key challenges in family structure and parenting; early childhood development; K-12 education; vocational, technical, and community colleges; and community institutions. The papers will be shared with mayors and leaders in churches, nonprofits, and community organizations across the nation, where much of the reform effort is taking place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an increasing sense that this is a big deal, that we\u2019re moving toward an America that none of us has ever lived in, a world of two Americas, a completely economically divided country,\u201d said Putnam. \u201cThat\u2019s not an America I want my grandchildren to grow up in. And I think there are lots of people in America who, if they stop and think about it, would say, \u2018No, that\u2019s not really us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Illustration by Kathleen M.G. Howlett.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Next Tuesday: Inequality in education<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-right is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-f1f2ed93 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p><em>Second in a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/topic\/inequality\/\">series<\/a> on what Harvard scholars are doing to identify and understand inequality, in seeking solutions to one of America\u2019s most vexing problems.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can\u2019t have both,\u201d Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said decades ago during another period of pronounced inequality in America.<\/p>\n<p>Echoing the concern of the Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate, over the past 30 years myriad forces have battered the United States\u2019 legendary reputation as the world\u2019s \u201cland of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 global economic meltdown that eventually bailed out\u00a0Wall Street financiers but left ordinary citizens to fend for themselves trained a spotlight on the unfairness of fiscal inequality. The issue gained traction during the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in 2011 and during the successful U.S. Senate campaign of former HLS Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/05\/the-women-who-questioned-wall-street\/\">Elizabeth Warren<\/a> in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>What was once viewed as a fringe political issue is now at the heart of the angry, populist rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign. Personified by outsider candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, economic <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">inequality<\/a> has resonated with broad swaths of nervous voters on both the left and right.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Robert Putnam<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawrence Katz, the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), says the most damaging aspects of the gap between the top 1 percent of Americans and everyone else involve the increasing economic and political power that the very rich wield over society, along with a growing educational divide, and escalating social segregation in which the elites live in literal and figurative gated communities.<\/p>\n<p>If the rate of economic mobility \u2014 the ability of people to improve their economic station \u2014 was higher, he says, our growing income disparity might not be such a problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what we have been seeing is rising inequality with stagnant mobility, which means that the consequences of where you start out, whether it\u2019s in a poor neighborhood, whether it\u2019s from a single-parent household, are more consequential today than in the past. Your ZIP code and the exact characteristics of your parents seem to matter more,\u201d said Katz. \u201cAnd that\u2019s quite disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The growing gap between the rich and the rest isn\u2019t a matter of who can afford a yacht or a Manhattan penthouse, analysts say. Rather, it\u2019s the crippling nature of these disparities as they touch nearly every aspect of daily lives, from career prospects and educational opportunities to health risks and neighborhood safety.<\/p>\n<p>The widening income gap also has fueled a class-based social disconnect that has produced inequitable educational results. \u201cNow, your family income matters more than your own abilities in terms of whether you complete college,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/07\/robert-putnam-receives-national-humanities-medal\/\">Robert Putnam<\/a>, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). \u201cSmart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That\u2019s not because of the schools, that\u2019s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/600-theda-skocpol-inequality.jpg\" alt=\"Theda Skocpol\" class=\"wp-image-179069\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>Economic inequality also feeds the\u00a0political kind, driving everything from the actions of our political representatives to the quality and quantity of civic engagement, such as voting and community-based public service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s long been known that the better educated, those with higher incomes, participate more\u201d in politics on \u201ceverything from voting to contacting politicians to donating,\u201d said Theda Skocpol, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at FAS. \u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Money eases access<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s unlacing of campaign-finance laws that limited how much donors could give candidates or affiliate organizations, coupled with allowing donors to shield their identities from public scrutiny, have spawned a financial arms race that requires viable presidential candidates, for example, to solicit donors constantly in a quest to raise $1 billion or more to win.<\/p>\n<p>Given that rulebook, it\u2019s hardly surprising that the political supporters with the greatest access to candidates are usually the very wealthy. Backers with both influence and access often help to shape the political agenda. The result is a kind of velvet rope that can keep those without economic clout on the sidelines, out of the conversation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn the current election cycle, 158 families have given half the money to candidates.\"<br \/>\n\u2014 Lawrence Lessig<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cSomething like the carried-interest provision in the tax code, when you explain it to ordinary citizens, they don\u2019t like the idea that income earned by investing other people\u2019s money should be taxed at a lower rate than regular wage and salary income. It\u2019s not popular in some broad, polling sense. But many politicians probably don\u2019t realize it at all because \u2026 politicians spend a lot of their time asking people to give money to them [who] don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea to change that,\u201d said Skocpol. \u201cThere\u2019s a real danger that, as wealth and income are more and more concentrated toward the top, it does become a vicious circle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoney has corrupted our political process,\u201d said Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at HLS. In Congress, he said, \u201cThey focus too much on the tiny slice, 1 percent, who are funding elections. In the current election cycle [as of October], 158 families have given half the money to candidates. That\u2019s a banana republic democracy; that\u2019s not an American democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lessig was so unhappy with how political campaigns are funded that he briefly ran for president on the issue. Reviewing his efforts during a Harvard forum on the topic in November, he described his candidacy as a referendum on the campaign-finance system, but also on the need to reform Congress, which he called a \u201cbroken and corrupted institution\u201d undercut by big donors and gerrymandered election districts.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How we got here<\/h2>\n<p>Christopher \u201cSandy\u201d Jencks, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at HKS, believes that the past 30 years of rising American inequality can be attributed to three key factors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decline in jobs and employment rates for less-skilled workers, which has increased the number of households with children but no male breadwinner.<\/li>\n<li>The demand for college graduates outpacing the pool of job candidates, adding to the gap between the middle class and upper-middle class.<\/li>\n<li>The share of income gains flowing to the top 1 percent of earners doubling as a result of deregulation, globalization, and speculation in the financial services industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The U.S. government does \u201cconsiderably less\u201d than comparable democracies to even out disposable family incomes, Jencks says. And current state and local tax policies \u201cactually increase income inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the costs and risks of capitalism seem to have been shifted largely to those who work rather than those who invest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Compounding the economic imbalance is the unlikely prospect that those at the bottom can ever improve their lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have some of the lowest rates of upward mobility of any developed country in the world,\u201d said Nathaniel Hendren, an associate professor of economics at FAS who has studied intergenerational mobility and how inequality transmits across generations.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/02-income-gains-households-b.gif\" alt=\"Income Gains Households\" class=\"wp-image-179023\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households">CBPP.org<\/a>\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>Hendren, along with Harvard economists Katz and Raj Chetty, now at Stanford University, looked at the lasting effects of moving children to better neighborhoods as part of Moving to Opportunity, a short-lived federal housing program from the \u201990s. Their analysis, published in May, found that the longer children are exposed to better environments, the better they do economically in the future. Whichever city or state children grow up in also radically affects whether they\u2019ll move out of poverty, he said.<\/p>\n<p>For children in parts of the Midwest, the Northeast, and the West, upward mobility rates are high. But in the South and portions of the Rust Belt, rates are very low. For example, a child born in Iowa into a household making less than $25,000 a year has an 18 percent chance to move into the upper 20 percent of income strata over a lifetime. But a child born in Atlanta or Charlotte, N.C., has only a 4 percent chance of moving up, their study found.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_26_01_gazette_mobility_graphic1.jpg\" alt=\"Economic mobility\" class=\"wp-image-179236\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>What unites areas of low mobility, Hendren says, are broken family structures, reduced levels of civic and community engagement, lower-quality K-12 education, greater racial and economic segregation, and broader income inequality.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, 90 percent of American workers have seen their wages stall while their costs of living continue to rise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at the data, it\u2019s sobering. Median household income when last reported in 2013 was at a level first attained in 1989, adjusting for inflation. That\u2019s a long time to go without any gains,\u201d said Jan Rivkin, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS).<\/p>\n<p>Wage inequality is on the rise for both genders. Within that range, the gap between men and women remains a hot-button issue despite gains by women in the past three decades. Broadly, the ratio of median earnings for women increased from 0.56 to 0.78 between 1970 and 2010.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/2016_08_02_gazette_economy_politics_graphic_922x600.png\" alt=\"Median weekly earnings chart\" class=\"wp-image-179190\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href="http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. Graphic by Judy Blomquist\/Harvard Staff\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>But according to Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at FAS, the gender earnings gap is not a constant, varying widely by occupation and age. While women in their late 20s earn about 92 percent of what their male counterparts earn, women in their early 50s earn just 71 cents on the dollar that the average man makes. For some career paths, like pharmacists, veterinarians, and optometrists, corporatization has closed the gap between men and women.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, wiping away the gender pay gap isn\u2019t a cure-all for the larger issues of inequality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you reduce gender inequality to zero, you\u2019ve closed inequality \u2026 by a very small percent,\u201d said Goldin. \u201cI\u2019m not saying there aren\u2019t things that we can\u2019t fix, but I am telling you, without a doubt, they\u2019re going to move the lever by very little.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Underinvestment in \u201cthe commons\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Rivkin says that the pressures of globalization and technological change and the weakening of labor unions have had a major impact. But he disagrees that political favoritism toward business interests and away from ordinary citizens is the primary reason for burgeoning inequality. Rather, he says that sustained underinvestment by government and business in \"the commons\u201d \u2014 the institutions and services that offer wide community benefits, like schools and roads \u2014 has been especially detrimental.<\/p>\n<p>Last spring, HBS conducted an alumni survey for its annual U.S. Competitiveness Project research series, probing respondents for their views on the current and future state of American businesses, the prospects of dominating the global marketplace, and the likelihood that the resulting prosperity would be shared more evenly among citizens.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat is quite new in recent times is \u2026 very systematically, that government really responds much more to the privileged than to even middle-income people who vote.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Theda Skocpol<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The survey findings, released in September, showed that most HBS alumni were skeptical that living standards would rise more equitably soon, given existing policies and practices. A majority said that inequality and related issues like rising poverty, limited economic mobility, and middle-class stagnation were not only social ills, but problems that affected their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy sense is that a larger and larger number of business leaders are waking up to the idea that issues of inequality, and particularly lack of shared prosperity, have to be addressed for the sake of business,\u201d said Rivkin, the project\u2019s co-chair.<\/p>\n<p>The surging power of the very wealthy in America now rivals levels last seen in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, analysts say. One difference, however, is that the grotesque chasm between that era\u2019s robber barons and tenement dwellers led to major social and policy reforms that are still with us, including labor rights, women\u2019s suffrage, and federal regulatory agencies to oversee trade, banking, food, and drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Hendren said there\u2019s no less chance today of rising or falling along the income spectrum than there was 25 years ago. \u201cThe chances of moving up or down the ladder are the same,\" he said, \"but the way we think about inequality is that the rungs on the ladder have gotten wider. The difference between being at the top versus the bottom of the income distribution is wider, so the consequences of being born to a poor family in dollar terms are wider.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What price inaction?<\/h2>\n<p>Unless America\u2019s policymakers begin to chip away at the underlying elements of systemic inequality, the costs to the nation will be profound, analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we will pay many prices. We will continue to have divisive politics. We won\u2019t make the investments we need to provide the majority of kids with a better life, and that would be really not fulfilling,\u201d said Katz.<\/p>\n<p>Partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., has diminished the effectiveness of government \u2014 perhaps the most essential and powerful tool for addressing inequality and citizens' needs. By adopting a political narrative that government should not and cannot effectively solve problems, legislative inaction results in policy inaction.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/073115_katz_014_600x401.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-178900\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Kris Snibbe\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a strategy\u201d to justify starving government of resources, which in turn weakens it and makes it less attractive as a tool to accomplish big things, said Skocpol. \u201cIn an everybody-for-themselves situation, it is the better-educated and the wealthy who can protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Surveying the landscape, Katz sees reasons to be both hopeful and worried.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe optimism is that there are regions of the U.S., metropolitan areas that have tremendous upward mobility. So we do have models that work. We do have programs like Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit that work pretty well. I think that if national policy more approximated the upper third of state and local policies, the U.S. would have a lot of hope,\u201d said Katz. \u201cMy pessimistic take would be that if you look at two-thirds of America, things are not improving in the way we would like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Putnam is heartened that inequality has been widely recognized as a major problem and is no longer treated as a fringe political issue.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can be done?<\/h2>\n<p>Jencks says there are many steps the federal government could take \u2014 if the political will existed to do so \u2014 to slow down or reverse inequality, like increasing the minimum wage, revising the tax code to tax corporate profits and investments more, reducing the debt burden on college students, and improving K-12 education so more students are better prepared for college and for personal advancement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStrong regulation and strong support for collective control over the things that society values is much more prevalent in societies that have lower levels of inequality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Though labor rights have been eroding for decades, Benjamin Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at HLS, still thinks that unions could provide an unusual way to help equalize political power nationally. Unions used to wield both economic and political clout, but legislative and court decisions reduced their effectiveness as economic actors, cutting their political influence as well. At the same time, campaign finance reform to limit the influence of wealth on politics has failed.<\/p>\n<p>To restore some balance, Sachs suggests \u201cunbundling\u201d unions\u2019 political and economic activities, allowing them to serve as political organizing vehicles for low- and middle-income Americans, even those whom a union may not represent for collective bargaining purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe risk that economic inequalities will produce political ones \u2026 has led to several generations of campaign finance regulation designed to get money out of politics. But these efforts have not succeeded,\u201d Sachs wrote in a 2013 Yale Law Review article. \u201cRather than struggling to find new ways to restrict political spending by the wealthy \u2026 the unbundled union, in which political organization is liberated from collective bargaining, constitutes one promising component of such a broader attempt to improve representational equality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, given the historic labor and wage trend lines, Goldin said the economic forces that perpetuate unequal wages \u2014 and inequality more broadly \u2014 won\u2019t simply disappear even with a spate of new laws.<\/p>\n<p>[gz_sidebar align=\"right\"]<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Possible solutions to economic and political inequality:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase economic mobility<\/li>\n<li>Tax corporate profits, investments more<\/li>\n<li>Raise the minimum wage<\/li>\n<li>Cut the debts of college graduates<\/li>\n<li>Improve K-12 education<\/li>\n<li>Reduce the influence of money in politics<\/li>\n<li>Even out disposable family incomes<\/li>\n<li>Tax carried interest at a higher rate<\/li>\n<li>Make business taxes a compliance issue<\/li>\n<li>Mentor low-income children<\/li>\n<li>Jump-start vocational education<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/gz_sidebar]<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is na\u00efve of most individuals to think that for everything there is something that government can legislate and regulate and impose that makes life better for everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even so, with Congress stalled over fresh policies, analysts say that much of the innovation concerning inequality has moved to state and local levels, where partisanship is less calcified and the needs of constituents are more evident.<\/p>\n<p>In Oregon and California, for example, residents will be automatically registered to vote upon turning 18, a move that Skocpol says should bolster civic participation and provide protection from onerous new voter-identification laws.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s clear that investing in children and their education pays lifelong dividends for them, those gains take 20 years to be realized, said Katz. That\u2019s why it\u2019s critical that their parents get help and live in less vulnerable situations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is certainly evidence that if we reduce the degree of economic and racial and ethnic segregation of our communities, we can move in that direction,\u201d said Katz, who is working on an experiment to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in New York City to help younger workers without children who are struggling to break into the labor market.<\/p>\n<p>Changes to the minimum wage, the tax system, and the treatment of carried interest \u201care all debates in which our society should engage,\u201d said Rivkin, who cautioned that those would be hard-fought political battles that wouldn\u2019t yield results for at least a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Of course industry needs to run its businesses productively and profitably, but it can do so without harming \u201cthe commons,\u201d Rivkin said. \u201cBusiness has been very effective at pursuing its narrow self-interest in looking for special tax breaks. I think that kind of behavior just needs to stop.\u201d Drawing on an idea from HBS Finance Professor Mihir Desai, Rivkin suggests that businesses treat their tax responsibilities as a compliance function rather than as a profit center. That money could then go back into investment in \u201cthe commons,\u201d where \u201clots of common ground\u201d exists\u00a0among\u00a0business, labor, policymakers, educators, and others.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe businesses should be working with the local community college to train the workers whom they would love to hire; the university should be getting together with policymakers to figure out how to get innovations out of the research lab into startups faster; business should work with educators to reinvent the school system,\u201d said Rivkin.<\/p>\n<p>Putnam suggests more widespread mentoring of low-income children who lack the social safety net that upper- and middle-class children enjoy, a topic he explored in his book \u201cOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He recently convened five working groups to develop a series of white papers that will offer overviews of the key challenges in family structure and parenting; early childhood development; K-12 education; vocational, technical, and community colleges; and community institutions. The papers will be shared with mayors and leaders in churches, nonprofits, and community organizations across the nation, where much of the reform effort is taking place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an increasing sense that this is a big deal, that we\u2019re moving toward an America that none of us has ever lived in, a world of two Americas, a completely economically divided country,\u201d said Putnam. \u201cThat\u2019s not an America I want my grandchildren to grow up in. And I think there are lots of people in America who, if they stop and think about it, would say, \u2018No, that\u2019s not really us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Illustration by Kathleen M.G. Howlett.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Next Tuesday: Inequality in education<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18034,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2007\/06\/fas-names-bruce-western-professor-of-sociology\/","url_meta":{"origin":178875,"position":0},"title":"FAS names Bruce Western professor of sociology","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce Western, a leading social scientist in the field of inequality, whose work is focused on incarceration and labor market stratification, has been appointed professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), effective July 1. In addition to his appointment in FAS, Western will also direct the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":340725,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2022\/03\/nobel-winning-economist-says-inequality-breeds-discontent\/","url_meta":{"origin":178875,"position":1},"title":"Joseph Stiglitz warned of wealth gap in 2012 \u2014 and it\u2019s gotten worse","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"March 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Joseph E. Stiglitz discusses how inequality has affected the country over the last decade during an HKS lecture Monday evening.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, left, gives the 2022 Stone lecture on inequality with visiting HKS prof David Autor.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/032822_Stiglitz_174.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/032822_Stiglitz_174.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/032822_Stiglitz_174.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/032822_Stiglitz_174.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60486,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2007\/10\/income-inequality-associated-with-double-disease-burden-of-overnourishment-and-undernourishment-in-india\/","url_meta":{"origin":178875,"position":2},"title":"Income Inequality Associated with Double Disease Burden of Overnourishment and Undernourishment in India","author":"harvardgazette","date":"October 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been known that countries with rapidly developing economies may experience a double-disease burden that results from undernutrition and overnutrition. People living in poverty experience diseases that result from a lack of resources, while affluent individuals may suffer from diseases that result from an abundance of resources. Researchers at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":174772,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/10\/education-as-a-tool-against-inequity\/","url_meta":{"origin":178875,"position":3},"title":"Education as a tool against inequality","author":"harvardgazette","date":"October 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard President Drew Faust tells U.S. mayors\u2019 panel that addressing inequality nationally begins with investing in education.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/100715_mayors_168_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/100715_mayors_168_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/100715_mayors_168_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":231821,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2017\/10\/new-harvard-initiative-to-tackle-u-s-inequality\/","url_meta":{"origin":178875,"position":4},"title":"Scholars home in on U.S. inequality","author":"gazettejohnbaglione","date":"October 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A new Harvard initiative focused on inequality in the U.S. includes a postdoctoral fellowship to begin in the 2018-19 academic year.","rel":"","context":"In "Work & Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Work & Economy","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/business-economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/101317_inequality_034_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/101317_inequality_034_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/101317_inequality_034_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":297568,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/03\/pikettys-new-book-explores-how-economic-inequality-is-perpetuated\/","url_meta":{"origin":178875,"position":5},"title":"How political ideas keep economic inequality going","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"March 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Economist Thomas Piketty discusses his new research into the historical roots of inequality around the world and what can be done to begin redressing it.","rel":"","context":"In "Work & Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Work & Economy","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/business-economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thomas Piketty.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Piketty.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Piketty.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Piketty.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Piketty.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235363,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178875\/revisions\/235363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178875"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=178875"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=178875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}