The Equity Summit 2011

I just returned from Detroit where I was happy to attend part of The Equity Summit 2011 (#equity11 on twitter). There were more than 2000 people in attendance and an excellent group gathered to discuss economic security including colleagues of ours from CFED, CBPP, the Insight Center, Aspen Institute and many many more. I wanted to take a minute to point out one of the big highlights of the event which was yesterday’s plenary featuring Geoffrey Canada and Shaun Donovan. I don’t think it’s unfair to either one of those distinguished gentlemen to say that there wasn’t a great deal of news in their remarks, but there doesn’t have to be news when you have a chance to hear the messages that they brought to the table. Also sharing the stage with them was Joan Walsh of Salon, and I think she was able to sum up the experience really well in a post on her site:

On the eve of the Great Depression, we had historic income inequality (which was only matched in 2007, on the eve of the Wall Street crash) and for a long time people drew the conclusion that radical economic inequality was dangerous, for everyone. From 1947 through 1973, we had tax policies that flattened income inequality. It was a political decision. The incomes of people at the bottom and in the middle grew faster than the incomes at the top.

The italics are mine, but that theme is something that I believe needs to be hammered home. It’s a point Robert Frank made when he spoke at New America a few weeks back and one I tried to make when I spoke to a group of Congressional staff gathered by the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus. One questioner asked whether patterns of inequality (in wealth in particular) were a result of culture or policy. Any sensible answer mixes pieces from both, but you simply can’t deny the history (update: new link) of wealth building efforts in this country and how they have contributed to the situation we have on our hands today. Policy plays a critical role in shaping culture and it would be foolish to take a fatalistic approach to the problems posed by inequality. The message of the Equity Summit to me is simple, we can do something about it.