Commentary
Barack Obama called it “the defining issue of our time.” The widely quoted but rarely read author of “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” Thomas Piketty, called it a threat to democracy. And the Australian Council of Social Services fears it is getting much worse.
What is this scourge? Is it the war raging in Europe, the pandemic menacing the world, or the dangerously changing climate?
No, the poison seeping through the body politic is inequality. The rich, it appears, are getting even richer.
Why should we care?
According to Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s book, “The Spirit Level,” wealth inequality increases crime, lowers life expectancy, and makes people fat.
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