David, there's a lot of discussion about income inequality if we accept that it's a problem.
How can we actually fix it?
OK, this is a good question.
Let's not debate whether income inequality is a problem.
Let let's accept that it is.
And that's not what this segment is about.
We can talk about whether it's a problem in another segment.
I believe that it is.
And I've outlined why many times the most important.
Fact to realize about fixing income inequality is that we don't need to come up with anything
new.
We have essentially all the ideas we need to deal with income inequality.
Now, to be very clear, I don't believe that we need perfect distribution of income, perfect
distribution, equality of outcomes, so to speak, is not naturally occurring anywhere.
I don't believe it would be good to force it.
I'm not a socialist.
I don't believe there would be any reasonable, reasonable expectation that everybody has
the same amount of money.
What I do think is a social Democrat, though, is the bottom should be lifted.
There should be a safety net that says we're not going to allow people to ball fall below
this level.
And then at the top, you should have more restrictions about, OK, if we say billionaires
are okay, are multibillionaires turbow billionaires, what at what point do we want to be saying
now is when you've got to really be redistributing?
It's a gray area.
Different people would put it at a different different spot.
We have all of the different tools.
But the problem is getting the right combination.
So as an example, should the minimum wage be higher than it is right now?
Of course.
Is a fifteen dollars minimum wage nationally going to solve the problem of inequality?
No, we need a higher minimum wage.
Exactly what it should be probably depends on the state that we're in.
But a fifteen dollar minimum wage isn't even a living wage in many states based on cost
of living.
So do we need to raise the minimum wage?
Yes, there will be people who come in and say, well, for higher minimum wages, better,
why not just make it 200 dollars an hour?
That's not an equilibrium wage anywhere.
And that's a red herring.
Don't fall for it.
Do we need a more robust social service system funded by taxes on the very, very rich, but
that includes financial transactions and some of these other ideas?
Yeah, we've got the tools.
We know what it would look like.
There's just no political will to do it right now.
Do we need better educational access regardless of income?
Because one of the great equalizers is education.
And unfortunately, in our society, yes, there are scholarships.
Yes, we know about all that stuff.
But the reality is there is very low income mobility in the United States.
And part of that is because there is not widespread good education that is accessible to people
who start off in an economically disadvantaged position.
Trade is part of it.
You know, Trump talks about trade.
Some trade things can be bad for the middle class.
Look, I'll concede that you've got to look at trade.
We can look at things like universal basic income or a value added tax.
And there's pros and cons to all of these.
My point is there are no new tools that are necessary to deal with income inequality.
But we have to get away from do nothing and let the markets handle it because we know
that doesn't work.
We know that doesn't work.
I'm fine as a social Democrat, letting markets work to direct resources in many industries.
As I've said before, I don't need the government making all the cell phones or making all the
airplanes, but I sure as hell want the government involved in regulating those industries and
well regulated markets where private industry is manufacturing stuff.
I'm fine with certain areas need to be taken out of that health care education.
You could argue that some basic level of housing should be taken out of that.
It's a debate in the gray area, but we've got all the tools we need to figure out how
to put them together in the right proportions.
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