Price Of Inequality

In reference to these other countries, the question stands as to if international interaction positively or negatively affects economic distribution in the United States. According to The Economist, globalization is the real pro-poor policy. “The worst-off benefit far more from trade than the rich,” says the October 2016 issue, “A study of 40 countries found that the richest consumers would lose 28% of their purchasing power if cross-border trader ended; but those in the bottom tenth would lose 63%.” Unfortunately, however, this doesn’t actually bridge economic inequality in any substantial way, nor improve economic mobility. The purchasing power that is not lost when we remain globalized does not translate into greater disposable income,

In his book, The Price of Inequality, Joseph E. Stiglitz also discusses similar issues of visibility of elite power. Stiglitz tells us about the millions of young Americans “at the bottom, alienated, and without hope,” who have risen in recent years saying, “The protesters have called into question whether there is a real democracy. Real democracy is more than the right to vote once every two or four years. The choices have to be meaningful. But increasingly, and especially in the US, it seems that the political system is more akin to ‘one dollar one vote’ than to ‘one person one vote’. Rather than correcting the market failures, the political system was reinforcing them.”(152) Stiglitz highlights the ways in which certain visible corruptions of powerful institutions by the elite inspire and motivate protestors, even when there are few productive outlets for their rage. Robert Reich similarly discusses potential dangers of this awareness (especially in spaces with low educational accessibility) when he says in his book, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, “Moreover, people who believe the game is rigged are easy prey for political demagogues with fast tongues and dumb ideas.” (73) The proof of class-consciousness is in the rage and frustration of the citizens, and the increasingly loud ways that they are being communicated. People are losing faith in the equality of opportunity (and definitely in equality of outcomes) of the American political system, as proven by simple polling alongside a dramatically anti-institution election cycle and rampant protests