In the battle over inequality we need to forget the rhetoric and look closely at reality and then find real solutions.
What drove the middle class in the past; good paying union jobs and jobs that required brawn and mechanical skills are gone … forever! They were largely eliminated by technology, robots and global competition. None of that is going to change. In fact, it will get worse (or better depending on your point of view).
What pays now and what is indicative of the top percentages of earners is brains; creativity, innovation, ideas. While this creates billionaires, it also leads to tremendous improvements in our lives (he said while writing on his iPad using a public wi-fi after paying for his coffee with his iPhone simultaneously listen to Bloomberg radio via the Internet).
It seems to me we have two roads to follow. One is to take more, much more from the brains people and give more government support to the brawn folks. Does this solve the fundamental problem? I can’t see how.
The second and much tougher choice is to turn the brawns into brains or at least create sustainable jobs where a good combination of brains and brawn is required. The skills needed for renewable energy projects may be an example. Here is a story with a practical example of this type of change.
The days of going to work, being told what to do and doing that alone for eight hours a day are over, those jobs add little value which is why they are low paying or done by workers overseas willing to work for a pittance.
Shouldn’t the debate about inequality focus more on lifting the bottom up rather than tearing the top down?
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 