Fwd: qotd: qotd Editorial - Inequality for All

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Subject: qotd: qotd Editorial - Inequality for All
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 11:26:28 -0700
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



Quote of the Day Editorial
October 11, 2013
Inequality for All
By Don McCanne, qotd editor

Yesterday, my wife Sandy and I had the pleasure of joining a group from
our local chapter of the League of Women Voters in viewing the new
documentary, Inequality for All, featuring former Labor Secretary Robert
Reich. The lesson of the film did not escape those attending. The last
couple of decades have left low- and middle-income people behind while
all of the workers' gains in productivity have moved up to the very
wealthiest.

This is an important issue for those who support single payer reform -
improved Medicare for all. The average health care costs for the typical
working family of four are now over $22,000 while the median household
income is $50,000. If everyone is going to have the health care that
they need, some of that wealth flowing upwards needs to be redirected to
health care, and to other social needs as well.

Some of the wealthy one-percenters do understand this. Featured in the
documentary was entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. The
following link is to a six minute TED video in which Nick explains the
phenomenon and why it is important to us. (For political reasons, TED
removed this video from its website, but it is still available through
YouTube.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBx2Y5HhplI

In our dinner discussion after viewing Inequality for All, some
commented that, though the film explained the problem well, it seemed to
leave off any plan for action. It does not require much intuitiveness to
think of what actions we might take, though the website for the film
does help us by discussing six categories for action:

* Raise the minimum wage
* Strengthen workers' voices
* Invest in education
* Reform Wall Street
* Fix the tax system
* Get big money out of politics

Inequality for All:

http://inequalityforall.com

For those who would like to learn more, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel
Saez, who was also featured in the documentary, has published
extensively on this topic. Many of his papers - several co-authored by
Thomas Piketty - can be downloaded from his website:

http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/