Ed Weick wrote,
>Generally, what that research revealed is not really
>surprising: that the world's richest and most democratic countries have the
>most equitable distribution of income while the poorest countries have the
>least equitable. What this suggests is that economic development and rising
>national prosperity may indeed be the key to greater distributional
>equality.
Actually it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Lars Osberg, from
Dalhousie University, argues persuasively that the causal link runs the
other way, from equality to prosperity. There was an article by Osberg on
this in Canadian Business Economics sometime around 1995. I could look up
the exact reference if anyone wants it (or maybe someone else has it on hand).
Not quite on the other hand, James Galbraith has recently wrote of an
"ethical rate of unemployment", the idea that unemployment above a certain
level leads to an increase in inequality.
The neo-liberal fix runs counter to both of these observations. It maintains
that high unemployment is the unfortunate but sometimes necessary price to
pay for price stability and the inequality is the unfortunate but sometimes
necessary price to pay for economic efficiency. Both assertions are
theoretically weak and empirically unsubstantiated. They do however suit the
fancy of the coupon clipping classes who would like to believe that
maximizing their privilege serves a worthwhile social purpose and elevating
their gain is in the best interests of all.
Thus the two economic dead losses of inequality and unemployment form the
real ideological core of the neo-liberal dream. "Free markets" and
"democracy" are the fine sounding words used to peddle this elitist dreck to
the peasantry, just like Stalin used the word "socialism" to doll up an
earlier regime of bureaucratic totalitarianism.
Regards,
Tom Walker
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