Notice
the correlation between "wealth concentration" and the two economic
calamities of the last 100 years.
***
Even
if the wealthy "deserve every penny they've got," keeping it will
destroy the economy.
"Politics
and Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
***
***
"The most important reason (the president's) offensive has a chance is that it goes to the heart of why Obama got elected in the first place and won reelection. A substantial American majority just doesn’t buy the ideas that Obama forcefully rejected: that “inequality is both inevitable and just” and that “an unfettered free market without any restraints inevitably produces the best outcomes, regardless of the pain and uncertainty imposed on ordinary families.”
In describing his priorities, Obama’s language was plain but direct: “Good jobs. A better bargain for the middle class and the folks who are working to get into the middle class. An economy that grows from the middle out. . . . That’s where I ’ll focus my energies — not just for the next few months, but for the remainder of my presidency.”
“Middle out” is the key concept. Since the Reagan era, conservatives have enjoyed enormous success in making supply-side economics — the belief that wealth flows to everyone else from the economy’s commanding heights — a powerful, underground default position. A corollary: Government can do little to make the nation richer other than cut taxes and reduce its own reach.
The alternative view is, as Obama put it, that “growing inequality” is “not just morally wrong; it’s bad economics.”
“When middle-class families have less to spend,” Obama insisted, “businesses have fewer consumers. When wealth concentrates at the very top, it can inflate unstable bubbles that threaten the economy.”
In the long history of the country, concentrations of wealth and income always have created perverse effects. Broadening our nation’s winners’ circle, on the other hand, has always been the best strategy for sustainable growth. We need to acknowledge this once again.
There is more Obama needs to do to make his case for the specific steps Washington can take to restore shared, robust prosperity. He will have to beat back the forces that would continue to shrink government through a sequester that is making the recovery slower than it should be.
But this time, he cannot let himself be sidetracked. With 1,276 days left in his presidency, he chose to draw a clear line and start a big argument. His place in history will hang in large part on whether he can win it.
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