Inequality and Public Policy

One might think that wealth inequality, which has been increasing for decades, would by now have reached a point where those entrusted with running our government would with near unanimity think, and publicly disclose that they think, that we could accomplish a great deal more as a nation, we could lift ourselves up from our present sorry state, if we adopted policies of the sort President Biden dreams of, and policies that he hasn’t dreamed of, because, after all, although he is a decent man, he can’t think of everything, and they would be much better policies because those entrusted with running our government would all be working toward the same goal and wouldn’t carve out innumerable exceptions to satisfy lobbyists employed by rich donors and corporations who are benefactors of compliant politicians, and they would be policies more finely tuned to be efficient in achieving the results the Biden dreams of and beyond what Biden dreams of, for it turns out that cost is not a problem: All that’s needed is to restructure our tax and subsidy system, which grossly favors the rich, the really rich, and even more, the super rich, and even more, the oligarchal characters perched on the tops of their respective shining hills. The statistics prove it. One among dozens that leap off the page: “The wealth in stocks alone for the top 1 percent increased by more than $6.5 trillion over the course of the pandemic.” The money’s there. A lot more of it should be directed toward the common good.