Linkages

Straight talk from the Daily Iowan:

As income inequality grows, middle- and working-class Americans consume less. When there is no demand, employers have no incentive to hire new employees. There are no more excuses for inaction. We know what the problem is — now, let's fix it.

New study on Millennial generation finds deep concerns about inequality:

Younger Millennials are divided on whether the American Dream – the idea that if you work hard you’ll get ahead – holds true today. They are moderately optimistic about their long-term financial prospects, when they use their parents’ financial situation as a point of comparison. 

• A plurality (45%) of younger Millennials believe that the American Dream once held true, but not anymore, while 4-in-10 (40%) say the American Dream still holds true. One-in-ten (10%) younger Millennials say that the American Dream never held true.
• Approximately 4-in-10 (42%) of younger Millennials believe that, in their lifetime, they will be better off than their parents, compared to 18% who expect to be less well off than their parents, and 38% who predict that their financial situation will be about the same as their parents’.

College-age Millennials see the need for economic reform to address the gap between the rich and the poor.

• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of college-age Millennials agree that the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy, while (24%) disagree. Majorities of members of all political parties agree: 85% of Democratic Millennials, 71% of Independent Millennials, and 59% of Republican Millennials.
• A strong majority (63%) of younger Millennials agree that one of the big problems in this country is that we don’t give everyone an equal chance in life. Approximately 3-in-10 (28%) disagree, saying that it is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others.
• Nearly 7-in-10 (69%) Millennials believe that the government should do more to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, while 28% disagree.
• Younger Millennials strongly favor (72%) a policy sometimes called the “Buffett Rule,” which would increase the tax rate on Americans earning more than $1 million a year. Majorities of Republican, Independent and Democratic Millennials support the “Buffett Rule.

The NY Times paws at Burkhauser et al (New York Times)

So does CEPR's Dean Baker (Business Insider):

The big point that they are hitting on these days is that most middle income and poor people get health insurance, either from their employer or the government, which costs lots of money. If we add in this expense to their cash income, then the rise in inequality does not seem as large. 

... 

[But] it seems a bit perverse to argue that the poor are actually doing better than we thought because we are paying lots of money to cardiologists. 

The other point is to keep in mind is that if we look at health outcomes like life expectancy, then it adds to the view that inequality is increasing. While all income groups shared more or less equally in the gains in life expectancy in the three decades immediately following World War II, a hugely disproportionate share of the gains have gone to the top in last three decades.

 The New Yorker poses a seeming contradiction:

Since rich people are poorer in votes than they are in dollars, you’d think that, in an election year, the ninety-nine per cent would look to politics to get back some of what they’ve lost, and that inequality would be a big issue. So far, it hasn’t been.

and - several moderately entertaining thumbnail philosophical sketches later - comes away with an "unlovely" downer of a resolution:

Because groups with wildly different perspectives dominate politics, the observation that ninety-nine per cent of Americans are being left behind economically isn’t of much use politically. The ninety-nine per cent is too big a category to be an effective political force.

...  [I]f we are to go further—and get the political system to try seriously to reverse the trends of the past thirty years—somebody will have to figure out how to stitch together a coalition of distinct, smaller interest groups that, in their different ways, care deeply about inequality, and, together, can pressure Washington in favor of specific policies. It’s an unlovely business, but if you believe that government is the best instrument with which to address the problem it’s also a morally urgent one.

ttfn.