Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
1 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
America's Growing Inequality: Causes and Remedies (Original Post) BeckyDem Oct 2018 OP
How are governments doing in their efforts to fight inequality? BeckyDem Oct 2018 #1

BeckyDem

(8,361 posts)
1. How are governments doing in their efforts to fight inequality?
Sat Oct 13, 2018, 11:00 AM
Oct 2018

The United States ranks last among G7 countries in our new inequality index.

You’ve heard it before: The 42 richest people own as much wealth as half of humanity. Oxfam has been drawing attention to the global inequality crisis with that gut-wrenching data point. But isn’t extreme economic inequality inevitable? If not, what can be done about it?

Quite a bit. Oxfam and Development Finance International launched the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index this week at the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. This index ranks 157 countries according to how well their governments fight inequality through public spending on health, education and social protection, tax policy, and protection of labor rights.

Like Transparency International’s perception of corruption index, we hope the index will encourage a race to the top among governments. The index shows that all countries have room to improve their policies against inequality—even Denmark, which ranks first and trades on past glories, but is now backsliding. While rich countries tend to do better, not all do, like Singapore. Some poor countries do better than others, like Namibia, which achieves a decent score despite very a high level of income inequality. Some countries do well in one policy area—Mozambique on tax policy, for example—and less well in others.

The United States achieves a mediocre score and ranks 23rd in the world and last among G7 countries. The United States ranks at the top for public spending on health care as a proportion of total government spending, but millions of people lack health insurance and experience poor health outcomes. Spending on education is also relatively high, but unevenly distributed. Spending on social protection is low relative to other rich countries. The US labor rights score is very inadequate for a rich country, with a minimum wage below what is needed to keep working families above the poverty line and unchanged since 2009. The United States is one of only five countries in the world lacking mandatory paid parental leave. We expect the US score to fall in next year’s index as a result of the tax reform that came into force this year.

https://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2018/10/how-are-governments-doing-in-their-efforts-to-fight-inequality/


Nobel laureate and Oxfam director on Trump's WEF speech

(26 Jan 2018) Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima criticised US President Donald Trump's address at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday. Stiglitz, a frequent Trump critic, was not sure "whether the pace of lies was greater or less than normal" but said "there were a lot of misstated facts" in Trump's speech. "For instance he said it's the fastest rate of jobs creation and in fact it is 20 percent lower than in the final years of the Obama administration. He tries to give the impression that it's the fastest rate of growth that we've ever had – not true. During the Clinton administration was much, much faster," Stiglitz said.

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Editorials & Other Articles»America's Growing Inequal...