In the past week there has been some interesting news articles speaking to the problems caused by rising inequality. They have primarily revolved around the London riots in the UK, but raise the point of crime as a result of inequality. Alongside this information has been calls for increases in taxes on the rich (which is not a new request, but this one came from one of the richest men in the world himself – Warren Buffet), and a look at the future of capitalism considering the crises springing up all over the globe as countries face greater debt and inequality grows.
Bleeding hearts and bleeding heads (Toronto Star)
Here’s how the pundits explain the British riots
Stop coddling the super-rich: Buffet
Roubini on the fate of capitalism: Karl Marx was ‘partly right’
*Last 3 articles from the Globe and Mail
These four articles have the common thread of inequality, and how it can cause societal cleavages in social, economic, and criminal sectors. The fact can no longer be avoided; inequality is bad for all society (as Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett noted in their book “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger”), and something needs to be done about this immediately.
Continuing this discussion on inequality and the harms it causes is an important prelude to change. Now that more voices are presenting themselves – especially from the business sector – reality is getting harder to ignore. The structures we have in place are simply not sustainable, and are proving destructive.
