Angus Deaton on inequality: ‘The war on poverty has
become a war on the poor’
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2023/oct/07/angus-deaton-interview-book-economics-in-america
Still, in time Deaton came to understand why Americans might be suspicious of government given that in the US it often works “not to protect ordinary people but to help rich predators make ordinary people poorer”. The political system, he said, is “more responsive to the needs of those who finance it than to its constituents”.
Deaton argues that the system is also increasingly weighted by access to higher education, itself increasingly an industry that drives students deeply into debt.
“One of the things I’ve learned is that the deepest forms of inequality are these sort of personal inequalities where not everyone is given equal value as a human being. That is the inequality that is so worrisome in America today. To have high status, to have access to good jobs, to be recognised valuable member of society, you have to have a four year college degree,” he said.
“If you don’t, you don’t get to be part of the ruling class. You don’t get to participate in Congress. You don’t have access to good jobs. You’re excluded from the successful cities, and all sorts of bad stuff happens to you.”
Deaton said that what’s emerged from decades of a system weighted in favour of those with a university education is a form of class system, although Americans do not like to talk about it in those terms.
“That’s the difference with Britain where they always knew they had a class system. But the US has moved to something much closer to the class system,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2023/oct/07/angus-deaton-interview-book-economics-in-america
Still, in time Deaton came to understand why Americans might be suspicious of government given that in the US it often works “not to protect ordinary people but to help rich predators make ordinary people poorer”. The political system, he said, is “more responsive to the needs of those who finance it than to its constituents”.
Deaton argues that the system is also increasingly weighted by access to higher education, itself increasingly an industry that drives students deeply into debt.
“One of the things I’ve learned is that the deepest forms of inequality are these sort of personal inequalities where not everyone is given equal value as a human being. That is the inequality that is so worrisome in America today. To have high status, to have access to good jobs, to be recognised valuable member of society, you have to have a four year college degree,” he said.
“If you don’t, you don’t get to be part of the ruling class. You don’t get to participate in Congress. You don’t have access to good jobs. You’re excluded from the successful cities, and all sorts of bad stuff happens to you.”
Deaton said that what’s emerged from decades of a system weighted in favour of those with a university education is a form of class system, although Americans do not like to talk about it in those terms.
“That’s the difference with Britain where they always knew they had a class system. But the US has moved to something much closer to the class system,” he said.
