Like many conservatives, Greg Mankiw argues that wealth inequality is not a problem in itself because people earn what they deserve based on their career and talents. If you aren’t making enough, you should try harder. He views money not as a desire, but a byproduct of work. But what are the implications of this viewpoint for the poor? Many people in lower income brackets also work hard for their paychecks, but are still unable to earn the money and benefits to lead a comfortable lifestyle. Tyler Cowen and Matthew Desmond tackle the conservative and the liberal views of wealth inequality in their articles “It’s Not the Inequality; It’s the Immobility” and “How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality”, respectively. The conservative
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Redlining referred to lenders who refused to lend money or extend credit to borrowers in certain areas of a town, usually because those areas were viewed as more dangerous and thus a higher insurance liability. These have historically been predominantly non-white communities littered with crime, which benefit from little tax money for things like reputable schools and good local maintenance. Although redlining is not actively done today, the effects remain. In 2011, the average white household’s net worth was $111,146, whereas the median black and Hispanic households were $7,113 and $8,348, respectively (Desmond, p. 2).
These facts counter Cowen’s argument about immobility: many minorities are unable to move up, regardless of how hard they work, because of their historic social and economic place in society. In order to remedy economic disparity, the federal government must reform how to allocate our money, and then spend it wisely. For example, reforming the MID by putting a limit to the deduction would be an easy solution, but the money would have to be redistributed to where it will benefit affordable housing, and not a different government project, in order to
Redlining referred to lenders who refused to lend money or extend credit to borrowers in certain areas of a town, usually because those areas were viewed as more dangerous and thus a higher insurance liability. These have historically been predominantly non-white communities littered with crime, which benefit from little tax money for things like reputable schools and good local maintenance. Although redlining is not actively done today, the effects remain. In 2011, the average white household’s net worth was $111,146, whereas the median black and Hispanic households were $7,113 and $8,348, respectively (Desmond, p. 2).
These facts counter Cowen’s argument about immobility: many minorities are unable to move up, regardless of how hard they work, because of their historic social and economic place in society. In order to remedy economic disparity, the federal government must reform how to allocate our money, and then spend it wisely. For example, reforming the MID by putting a limit to the deduction would be an easy solution, but the money would have to be redistributed to where it will benefit affordable housing, and not a different government project, in order to