FrankSpace

Is the Prince, a prince, because the pauper is a pauper?

What bothers me most about about increasing inequality as a concept is its bloodless abstractness. What bothers me about increasing inequality as a phenomenon, is its causal relation to increasing economic predation.

There was a time, when commercial banking and thrift institutions were oriented toward enabling people to own their homes; now, its all a game, oriented to enable a few to make millions or billions, and millions to enjoy the nightmare of foreclosure. There was a time, when state and local governments subsidized their colleges and universities, and wealthy people endowed private institutions, with the aim of enabling young people to get advanced education; now, advanced education is an opportunity to sink millions into debt peonage.

There was a time, when free trade promised higher quality and greater variety of goods, available to the mass of consumers. Now, it is an opportunity to exploit and defraud workers, globally.

The overton window may have shifted a bit to the left, but I’d say Tyler Cowen is still defending well within his own territory, when he doesn’t have to answer for his own parasitic existence as the well-paid apologist of the Koch empire, a complex of enterprises dedicated to depleting the earth’s resources and destoying its climate.