Providing citizens with a basic income has shown signs of success in lifting people out of poverty, but more importantly the idea is transforming the way we think about inequality.
Discretionary pricing… for scientists and surveyors.
Hidden Science Map
Larisa Hussak, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
It’s human nature to assume there must be a valid reason for inequalities in society. What’s the psychology behind why we believe there’s something fundamentally different between haves and have-nots?
Workers are still feeling a little pinched.
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The July employment report suggests the recent trend of lackluster gains in jobs and wages is continuing, and a rate hike should therefore be off the table for the time being.
Older Australians, women and people with disabilities are at high risk of being excluded from society by poverty and disadvantage.
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Measures of household wealth don’t go far enough in identifying those most at risk of being excluded from society, or in explaining the level of exclusion they face.
What happened to America’s working class?
Lego lunch via www.shutterstock.com
One reason for widening inequality is the decline of unions, which in turn is partly the result of the gradual elimination of the “working class” from our vocabulary.
Tomorrow’s engineers? Unlikely.
Robot engineer via www.shutterstock.com
If every policy decision must pass the ‘fairness test’, will Australia end up making unfair decisions?
The growing inequality that triggered the Occupy protests, such as this one in Bennington, Vermont, is now registering as an issue with politicians at the highest level.
Wikimedia Commons/Daniel Case
The opportunity gap between well-off and poor American children is vast and, more alarmingly still, it is growing. Some political leaders are starting to take note of the grim consequences.
Modern day American poverty: Slab City, CA
Eric Thayer/Reuters
One of President Barack Obama’s main goals this year, as laid out in both his 2015 budget and State of the Union address, is to provide relief to the middle class. The divergent responses to two of his…
Gemma Arterton and Dagenham veterans protest outside parliament.
Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
News that the West End musical Made in Dagenham will close in April is disappointing on two fronts. Ignore for a moment what it says about the viability of new theatre productions in the capital, and consider…
When we think about income and wealth inequalities we are tempted to lay blame on the old way of doing things. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty picks out inherited money as a driver…
Editor’s note: “The state of the union is good,” and the attitude of President Barack Obama in his annual speech to Congress was upbeat. Good economic news and no more election campaigns were the backdrop…
Shifting the tax burden to wage earners in the middle is a costly and outdated approach to tax reform.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Many developed economies have experienced a significant increase in inequality in recent decades. Survey data for Australia show that the share of the top 10% of the income distribution, and more markedly…
Zed Seselja led government members of the Senate inquiry in dissenting from its findings on the impacts of inequality in Australia.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Bridging our growing divide: Inequality in Australia is an important report tabled without fanfare in the Senate by its Community Affairs References Committee. The report is clearly argued and well-buttressed…
Protestors have been rallying for a “living wage” across the country in recent years, including at this one last month in Washington.
Reuters
A noxious combination of falling wages, income inequality at its highest since the 1920s and a growing low-wage sector has caused the ranks of the working poor to swell to more than 47 million. That’s…
Activists dressed as musicians and wearing masks depicting leaders of the members of the G7 protest against wealth inequality in Brussels in June.
Reuters
Wealth and income inequality have many causes, and it’s pretty much beyond dispute that any well-functioning capitalist society will have some degree of disparity between the richest and the poorest. It’s…
First world problems? The affordability of the iPhone 6 differs significantly depending on where you live.
Dan Peled/AAP
With every new product release from Apple comes all the usual media hype we have come to expect from this high-profile sector. While product launches are often discussed in terms of technological advances…