Randolph Rodgers: Insufficient middle-class income

In his Oct. 19 column “Economic equality as moral imperative,” George Will sets up a strawman and proceeds to shoot.

Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and others make it clear that their concern is income inequality attributable to political decisions and those impersonal market forces that Will refers to. They are not proposing an entitlement state. Nor are they stoking resentments. They say that middle-class income has collapsed, in real terms, in the last 30 years. Statistics cited by others reinforce their assertions.

The regulatory state, as Will calls it, emerged to protect us against institutional arrangements that benefited the powerful and organized at the expense of the weak and unorganized.

The zero interest rate that he faults has not restored “economic dynamism” because of other structural problems in our economy. These problems were caused, in part, by the deregulation of financial markets. Globalization and productivity increases exacerbated the problem.

The “ethic of sufficiency” that Will and Harry Frankfurt promote is precisely what Sanders and Clinton advocate. Examples include Obamacare, minimum wages and public education. These are financed by taxes, and the taxes must come from those with the wealth. That’s just common sense.

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Randolph Rodgers: Insufficient middle-class income."