Income Inequality Rise
The observed increase in income inequality in the US since the 1970’s cannot be solely attributed to an increased culture of dependency among members of the society or even purposeful policy decision that favor the rich. In his article ‘Skills, education and the rise of earnings inequality among the other 99 percent”, David H. Autor (2014), explains proposes that the most consequential component of rising income inequalities especially on the “other 99 percent” of the population is a dramatic growth in the salary or wage premiums associated with college education and in a broader sense, cognitive ability. Autor contends that this factor has contributed the most to the observed rise in income inequality particularly due to an increased demand for workers who are highly educated and a decreased demand for workers who are less educated. According to Autor, some of the factors that have contributed to this trend of decreased demand for less educated works include the increase in automation and computerization, steep increase of international competition from a world that is rapidly developing and decreased bargaining power of trade unions. Machine substitution for some of the routine human labor provided by less educated worker has complemented educated workers who particularly excel in abstract tasks that require intuition, problem-solving ability, persuasion and creativity.
The argument about an increase in the culture of dependency is not consistent in any way with Autor’s argument. In fact, there are established statistics to indicate that dependency levels have risen in the United States. Although Autor has mentioned that there is has been no observable shift in income mobility between generations of a single family, it cannot be said this is due to laziness or lack of desire from family members to improve themselves or the lives of their children. It is more about the lack of opportunity. On the other hand, the argument about the purposeful policy decisions that favors the rich is marginally consistent with Autor’s argument. Autor claims that progressive nations, usually, have effective policy levels that shape inequality trajectories and its socioeconomic policies, and these have been seriously lacking in the United States. Therefore, the argument that would be more accurate is that lack of adequate and relevant policies has significantly contributed to the observed increase of inequality in income levels.
Works Cited
Autor, David H. "Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the "other 99 percent"." Science 344.843-841 (2014): 6186. Print.
Poterba, J. "Income Inequality and Income Taxation." Journal of Policy Modeling 29.4 (2007): 623-633. Print.
