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This view in DW.com looks at the rising inequality in Chile and the devastating inflation of over 50% in Argentina, the failure in providing basic public services such as sanitation in Brazil, as failures in the economic models and also in the lack of social solidarity within Latin American nations.. The pursuit of "what is the most of what I can get" in place of "what is the best I can do so that the country and people benefit as a whole including myself as part of that society." Argentines have billions of dollars overseas, and billions are stored in homes outside of banks because no one trusts the government or banks to keep inflation in check. In Chile the economic model accepts high inequality as a norm. In Brazil much of the public spending goes to generous pensions crowding out basic services such as transport and sanitation. In each case one section of society looks after its own interests at the expense of the society as a whole leading to a breakdown and misery for all. ...

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Chris Buckley in the NYT today makes no mention of the Bo Xilai episode in 2012 and what this meant for Xi's future policy actions. Cheng Li calls it the most significant happening since the Lin Biao incident in 1971 and Tianmen in 1989. Brookings Institution offers this discussion of the Bo Xilai episode with Cheng Li, China expert on its economic and political elites. Cheng Li rejected the idea that China at the time in 2012 reflected "resilient authoritarianism," instead anticipating problems such as Bo Xilai emerging as a demagogue putting China in an ultranationalist and uncertain direction. This happened during the transition to a new team of leaders led by Xi Jinping in 2012. Xi could see the corruption in the CCP and the hypergrowth in China causing problems of irreparable environmental damage (now climate change), regional inequality, and offering an opening for demagogues to step into this mix of problems. Xi  acted devising policy shifts away from Hu Jintao and Wen Biao of the Bush-Paulsen era and pushing away from focus on rapid growth, shifting to counter inequality, unstable dependence on construction and housing, and excessive debt of that period. Little mention is given to this in NYT Chris Buckely's version of US-China relations in today's NYT (November 13, 2023). ...

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Meltzer points to the huge impact on wages in the U.S. from the millions of workers added to the global economy- as people from India, China and other developing countries competed for the same jobs as American workers- as a principal cause for increasing income inequality. The wages of the one percent were insulated from this and actually benefitted in the case of banking and finance. Current pricing practices in health care insulated the medical and hospital related professions. The effects of the global financial crisis- loss of construction jobs, foreclosures, and effects on savings hit the middle class and working classes hard, something Meltzer overlooks.

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Efforts to boost the share of national income that goes to rural households and workers in China. The share of income taken by state owned enteprises and taxes paid by the enterprises would have to change for reducing the gap in incomes and reducing inequality in China.

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The streets leading into Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, are coming alive like never before with large art murals on walls, in a new show of art and creativity of Bagdad's people. This is happening as protests for better services and better governance tackling inequality, jobs, continues.

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Harvard professor, Benjamin Friedman, reviews journalist Timothy Noah's book "The Great Divergences: America's Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It." Friedman says, Karl Marx got it wrong when he predicted greater inequality based on the situation he saw in Europe and the U.S. in the late nineteenth century. Inequality actually decreased in the U.S. and Europe with industrialization, technological progress, higher educational and income levels by the early part of the twentieth century. Similiarly Simon Kuznets, Nobel Laureate, also got it wrong when he extrapolated from what he saw in the early postwar period, assuming greater equality and better opportunities in future decades. The approach Noah and Friedman advise is to look at individual factors that promote or discourage less divergence in income levels, opportunities and upward mobility. And based on this shape policy and action agenda for better outcomes. A whole range of issues fall in this range- promoting manufacturing and higher wage jobs, immigration policy, investments in education to upgrade skills, better educational opportunities, vocational training, upgrading education to keep up with new technology, and investments in research and new technologies for new industries that would create better opportunities. Because inequality is increasing worldwide, and countries are focussing on improving competitiveness as well as preserving the social fabric in a global economy, this is an issue facing all countries that seek a better future....

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The internal feuds within Silicon Valley about ideas of altruism that support unlimited personal pursuit of profit including monopolistic behaviours, in the measure of their greed. And the presentation of lack of personal involvement in such gains by calling it altruistic. This justifies and puts a neat face on unlimited personal wealth creation in Silicon Valley at a time of great inequality and poverty in America. The consequences can be seen in the crumbling infrastructure and transportation services in New York City compared to that in newly industrializing countries such as China and India, the result of misallocation of capital.

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Pensions reform is being proposed by president Macron in France retaining the age of 62 as a concession, yet consolidating disparate pension schemes into a national pension plan. Transport workers and professional service workers such as lawyers are hurt by the change because of generous benefits. A general strike is bringing workers across France in protest. Earlier protests by yellow vest protesters about inequality showed rising dissatisfaction in France with the way the economic system is working.. 

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Changes to China's five year plan to include critical social goals, reduce income inequality, and provide a social safety net. The influence of local governments in distorting central government policy.

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About half of the people in a FES/ Bonn University report say they are fairly or very satisfied with German democracy. Skepticism about democracy is highest among people with less education and income. This is why the author of the study Handrych is concerned about social cohesion. As in the US with Biden the Greens Habeck and SPD's Scholz have to meet the challenge of social cohesion, a challenge put up by our times and the economic changes of the last few decades with the inequality of wealth. And the need for governance to serve the interests of all the people, not just a few that do well.

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Just 1% over 10 million pounds of wealth would raise 42 billion pounds from 22,000 individuals and take pressure off the National Health Service in Britain. The capital gains made during the period of Covid has further distorted incomes by hollowing out blue collar workers and increasing incomes of remote white collar workers during the pandemic. The wealth tax would simply reverse this additional element that added to the increasing inequality of the last 2 decades during the pandemic. It would add to general wellbeing in Britain without affecting the individual ability and innovation. In fst by diverting some of the funds to education it could enhance the ability to innovate and take risks in business.

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The NYT's Motoko Rich and Hikari Hida look at the relationship between Shinjo Abe and Fumio Kishida of Japan. Both entered parliament at the same time in 1993, and both are sons and grandsons of members of parliament. Mr. Abe took the lead and when it resigned in 2021 Kishida was not his first choice to succeed him in the Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida sees increasing defense spending as on of the realities of the changing situation in Asia and the Japanese public now supports this. Kishida is pursuing a different economic policy with an effort to reduce economic inequality which he sees as a problem similar to the US and Europe.

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We give here what is left out in the review of US China relations in the NYT. In 2012 the Bo Xilai incident highlighted the dangers of China veering off its path of development in new directions with demagogic leaders.  The effects of hypergrowth in creating excessive debt, regional inequality and corruption, waste of capital allocation in China, and in the US alienating communities that lost factories to China and major parts of its manufacturing base. Misgivings about this path were becoming more pronounced in the minds of China's new leadership under Xi Jinping. None of this is mentioned by Chris Buckley in his review of US China relations.

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The pandemic came to young German people at a time when the trend was for less opportunity, more inequality. These trends are now aggravated and the loss of opportunities, and the loss of hope is even worse now in 2021. Job searches are being conducted while experiencing intense social isolation, boredom and lack of physical acitivity. The job competition is described here as horrendously competitive, a few roles and so many job seekers jostling to get them as companies have been hammered during the pandemic. 

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Germany's social-affairs minister, Ursula von der Leyden, presents the "fourth poverty and wealth report," in March 2013. The issue of inequality is arousing public sentiment in Germany with this becoming an election issue along with the euro crisis and energy reform. The term Gerechtigkeit means "justice" in German and is associated with the idea of equality. The Social Democrats Party and the Greens talk about this in terms of "social scissors" opening wider. The Minder Initiative which passed in Switzerland enabling shareholders to restrict executive pay has led to public discussion in Germany for a similiar approach to be adopted by Germany. The ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) of Angela Merkel and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) party are different from other parties in Europe because of their Catholic and Lutheran roots which favor social solidarity. The FDP party in the ruling coalition supports free market principles but lacks popular support. The Economist cites the work of the German think tank DIW on inequality, which shows inequality showing sharp rise after German reunification around 1991, especially in East Germany. The situation moderates with improvements in inequality in East Germany and a slight improvement in West Germany after 2005. Both East and W. Germany have moved up overall in the Ginni coefficeint which measures inequality from about 0.4 in 1991 to about 0.5 in 2010, showing that the situation has stabilized at a higher level of inequality. Part of this could be because of the shift to temporary workers at lower wages about this time as German industry made efforts to keep wages down and improve competitiveness, even as overall conditions in the economy improved in the last decade. The Economist cites another study by the Initiative for a New Social Market Economy, a German think tank, which compares Germany with other members of the OECD. Germany ranks closer to Scandinavian countries in seventh place in this study, but does poorly in equal oportunities with 14th place. Germany lags behind other OECD and European countries in opportunities for women to work full time. Germany lacks enough daycare facilities for small children so that their mothers can work full time. There is a shortage of about 150,000 for preschool daycare openings in Germany, acccording to information cited by Deutsche Welle from government sources....

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President Obama proposes changes in taxes to fund programs to aid students such as free 2 years of community college, aid for student loans, and financial help for middle class families. Senate Majority Leader McConnell says the proposals to raise income taxes for high income Americans with $320 billion in new revenues over 10 years, reduced prospects for changes in the tax system. He said the Obama proposals were designed " to excite the base but not designed to pass." Obama says "the shadow of crisis has passed," and calls for "middle class economics," and improving incomes for anyone making the effort. The call comes as inequality widened during the long recession and some of the Obama administration's policies such as on homeowner foreclosure, and lack of focus on unemployment during the first term, may have actually worsened inequality. The call also comes late in the second term in Jan 2015- with presidential elections in 2016- after the Republicans gain control of both Houses of Congress, which is why Republicans dismiss this as mere political talking points for the base....

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A proposal by U.S president Obama to increase the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour from $7.25 to reduce poverty and inequality. This was announced in the State of the Union address of 2013.

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Ways in which Britain's Tory chancellor Mr. Javid, who himself attended further education schools, is addressing inequality in Britain, and issues such as low teenage literacy, low skill levels and education in working class areas. These are issues Labour had promised to tackle. Mr. Javid brings new ways and ideas. Action is also taken to nationalize poorly performing rail such as Northern Rail.  

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Kevin Rudd maintained a strong relationship with China when he was prime minister of Australia, He writes this piece in WSJ on the internal debate on policy taking place inside China at the China Central Economic Work Conference. Discussions are carried out in a vaguely referenced manner leaning to one side or the other in these dialogues inside Communist party circles since the 1930's. Here the discussion is on how quickly the idea of reducing social and economic inequality, or Xi Jinping's idea of a common prosperity should be implemented.

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Obama's State of the Union address in 2014 focusses on increasing the minimum wage, reducing inequality and creating opportunities for the middle class. It marks a shift to doing things by executive order wherever possible to avoid protracted debates and delays by Congress.

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Kristof says social ills- the lack of stable marraiges, drug use, poor day care resources- compound the problems of lack of education beyond high school in America's white underclass. The lack of good manufacturing jobs and lower wages have hit people with only a high school education the hardest. Two decades of decline in good manufacturing jobs with globalization have hit this part of the population in the U.S. hard creating increasing inequality in America. He sounds a Moynihan type call to the plight of America's poorest white communities.

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Many of the News properties of Rupert Murdoch take positions that negatively affect women, inequality and mobility, cost of living, income and wages fairness, climate change action, government investment in infrastructure, healthcare, and education, childcare. After Rupert the media properties go to the 4 children  Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence with each getting one vote under a irrevocable trust set up in 1999 in Reno, Nevada. Rupert and James says this story in NYT are making efforts to amend this trust to change governance provisions for the news properties so that Lachlan has majority voting rights. This is now opposed by James, Elisabeth and Prudence with courts in Nevada asked to see if this is in good faith and in the interests of all 4 children.

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Bollywood actor Aamir Khan is compared to Tagore as an export from India that helps improve Sino-Indian understanding and relations. Aamir Khan's movie Secret Superstar was received with acclaim in China, and reflected issues that China also faces of gender inequality, domestic violence, and the social presence of You Tube  and internet. A young Muslim teenage girl is taken up by a You Tube video and sees herself in an a roleas a singer.

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Young people in Taiwan voted against the Koumintang party government's policy of building stronger trade ties to China. This has weakened the administration of president Ma Ying-jeou, and turned it into a lame duck administration till presidential elections in 2016. Voters focussed on income inequlaity and wage stagnation. The issue of ties with China also were part of the campaign. DPP party won 13 of 22 seats for city and county heads in the election.

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As the final Republican tax bill is debated in Congress on December 19, 2017, Senator Bob Casey cited the following points from the Joint Committee on Taxation Report on the floor of the Senate.  1. Americans building their hopes that their pay checks in February 2018 will be increasing are in for a big disappointment said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior member of the Finance Committee. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimate is that for the 57 million families making less than 100,000 dollars a year the tax cuts in the Republican legislation will either not reduce their taxes or reduce the taxes by about $100 a year. 2. The bill does little for the big tasks facing America of rebuilding failing infrastructure. Senator Casey cited 4500 bridges needing repair or replacement in Pennsylvania alone. It also does little for health care access for middle class families and is likely to lead to 10% increase in health care premiums. Affordability of college and other hurdles of middle class and working class families remain unaddressed.   3. The $9 billion in the estate tax cuts would finance the Children's Health Insurance program which has expired.  4. The $36 billion in tax cuts for corporations comes at a time when corporate profits are at the highest they have been in 15 years, according to Vanguard founder Bogle. He also points out that wages as a percentage of GDP are the lowest in 15 years. The tax cuts in the Republican bill are not likely to correct this imbalance.  5. The share of GDP of people making more than one million dollars in 1980 was 11%, this is up now in 2017 to 20%. This has led to questions about the wisdom of these tax cuts which disproportionately benefit a very small percentage of Americans who do not need these tax cuts, and come with significant sacrifices for the middle class in terms of what is available in public services, and the cost to their children as infrastructure and access to health and education is made more distant because of a growing U.S. debt from this tax cut. The big problem then with this bill is that it further damages intergenerational mobility in the U.S., undermining the foundation of a democratic society. Damage has already happened in the past three decades as Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen pointed out at a conference on Economic Opportunity and Inequality on Oct. 17, 2014, saying-"The past several decades have seen the most sustained rise in inequality since the 19th century after more than 40 years of narrowing inequality following the Great Depression." This is why there is substantial agreement in the media from the Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip to Krugman in the New York Times that the bill fails to correct a harmful trend, and goes further in the wrong direction for a democratic society.       ...