The Progressive Press: Extreme Inequality Becoming a Global Danger

[Scuba]

http://www.progressivepress.net/extreme-inequality-becoming-a-global-danger/

The report states that rapidly growing extreme wealth and inequality are harmful to human progress because consolidation of so much wealth and capital in few hands depresses demand; meaning fewer people can afford more things. If the earnings were more evenly spread across the population then more people would have spending power to drive growth and drive down inequality.

Inequality of wealth also causes a politically corrosive government system where money power can be used to corrupt political process and on lobbying politicians to purchase democratic decision making.

Extreme wealth and inequality stunt social mobility. Receiving quality education and ability to break the cycle of poverty becomes more difficult as the social steps to upward mobility become a luxury for many. When social support systems –education, healthcare, childcare…etc- that can propel the poor into middle class become privatized to be purchased for a high price, inequality widens, because the poor cannot afford them.

The report estimates that the 1% has been using as much as 10,000 times more carbon than the average US citizen. When natural assets such as land and water are monopolized by the few, it creates scarcity that cannot continue if we are to have a sustainable future.