Growing inequity
To the editor:
Mitt Romney’s recent statement that he was not concerned about poor people because there is a safety net to take care of them was more than a political gaffe. It revealed his lack of understanding of the problem of the growing gap of inequality.
What is not always understood is that inequality is a reason and not only a symptom of our present financial crisis. The proposals to cut taxes for the wealthy by eliminating the already reduced tax on capital gains and dividends will further increase the wealth gap.
That could compound our current economic problem.
A high level of inequality holds down growth by reducing broad based consumption. The bottom 95 percent of our population does three quarters of our spending. We now have fair business at Dillards and at Walmart but less generally in between.
The International Monetary Fund recently reviewed our two major meltdowns. The depression of 1929 and our 2007 recession. The similarities they noted were that both has a preceding rapid increase in income inequality and in the debt to income ratio. Lack of good financial regulation and National monetary policy were also factors in both economic downturns.
We must however, recognize that our wealth gap is not just a product of our recession but is a factor in its occurrence and its persistence.
Arnold E. Kempe
Cape Coral