Emily Elders (Western Carolina University) on Economic Inequality
March 30, 2012
Is Economic Inequality the Single Greatest Problem in America Today?
Every social and political problem that we claim to have in America today – from faith to values to freedom – stems from a single fact: Americans are no longer participants in their own democracy.
Some believe this is simple apathy or poor choice. But it goes far deeper: even the apathy that holds some back from participation is itself a result of the economic disparity which makes slaves of nearly every citizen and condemns future generations to the same. The radical inequality of the system acts as an inducement to apathy and as a limiting determinant to social and cultural production.
We cannot engage when we cannot eat. We cannot share civil public discourse when we cannot learn how to communicate. We cannot progress to continue to lead the world as global citizens when we cannot believe in ourselves.
America was designed to create a plurality of values, a culture of shared humanity from which each individual could author their own development and jointly work to create a better society. Yet without an equal opportunity for each individual to thrive – to attain the dreams and goals that they choose freely, and to learn how to be members of an effective democracy – we succumb to radical division. We are too tired to think, too overworked to protest, and too worried about our families’ futures to participate in the polis we created. Thus, we have become the modern equivalent of the Athenian slaves, who were necessary to keep production running while the “free and equal citizens” who could afford to do so go about the business of legislating our rights.
A long tradition of fighters from Mary Wollstonecraft to Martin Luther King have argued for the equality of opportunity, and we are now at no less crucial a stage in the struggle to defend our rights as human beings. It is time for America to see that the very ideals by which we define ourselves – freedom, equality, and justice – are at risk of being lost.
Most of all, it is time for us to realize that we can and do share a plurality of values and a single common ground: we are worthy of dignity, we are worthy of humanity, and we are worthy of helping everyone in America and around the globe to accept and affirm their own free humanity. But we must begin now.
We cannot engage when we cannot eat. We cannot share civil public discourse when we cannot learn how to communicate. We cannot progress to continue to lead the world as global citizens when we cannot believe in ourselves.
America was designed to create a plurality of values, a culture of shared humanity from which each individual could author their own development and jointly work to create a better society. Yet without an equal opportunity for each individual to thrive – to attain the dreams and goals that they choose freely, and to learn how to be members of an effective democracy – we succumb to radical division. We are too tired to think, too overworked to protest, and too worried about our families’ futures to participate in the polis we created. Thus, we have become the modern equivalent of the Athenian slaves, who were necessary to keep production running while the “free and equal citizens” who could afford to do so go about the business of legislating our rights.
A long tradition of fighters from Mary Wollstonecraft to Martin Luther King have argued for the equality of opportunity, and we are now at no less crucial a stage in the struggle to defend our rights as human beings. It is time for America to see that the very ideals by which we define ourselves – freedom, equality, and justice – are at risk of being lost.
Most of all, it is time for us to realize that we can and do share a plurality of values and a single common ground: we are worthy of dignity, we are worthy of humanity, and we are worthy of helping everyone in America and around the globe to accept and affirm their own free humanity. But we must begin now.
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