Friday, March 2, 2007

What is the impact of economic inequality on political equality?

This is a subject that has been on my mind for years and years.

I believe that democracy and human rights are essential for a happy, prosperous society.

We have, I believe, genuine political rights in the West, including democratic rights.

But the political sphere is constrained by massive inequality in the economic sphere.

Politicians (or our political system) must appeal to those with the power to hinder or harm the economy of the society that might dare to legislate against them or their greater preponderance of resources.

I believe that it is possible to peacefully diminish the power of anti-democratic captialism through our present political process.

We can do this by establishing the human rights of workers within their workplaces, giving them all the powers there, that they possess as citizens within the broader society.

2 comments:

thwap said...

Thanks for the links Steven. I'll get to them.

I'm still interested in the geographical distribution of the new economy.

Plus, post-secondary education has always only been the experience of a minority of Canadians.

If it's becoming less and less accessible, then there's going to be even greater polarization of incomes.

Unknown said...

Where I live thwap, parents do whatever they can to get their children educated.

We are from a town with 850 people, and 500 in the farming area.

Between our local credit union and student loans, we are putting our oldest daughter through Psychiatric Nursing.

The average family income is $40,000 dollars a year.

Our daughter’s course and room have cost $12,000.00 X 2.

I farm, repair computers, create webpages and I am on council. I am also taking a Nursing course at my local college and hospital. My wife works in a medical lab. I have two children, and I have saved up enough money to pay half of each of their education.

Education is the greatest gift I can give.