Inequality: Now A White Problem

Increased wealth gap amongst White Americans has put inequality on the political menu

Inequality has existed since time immemorial. Now, with the rise of Trump, Sanders, Corbyn, and Brexit- inequality is centre-stage in politics and is galvanising movements. Yet, inequality has always been amongst us. It was only 50 years ago that black America existed within a 2-tier economic system. Such was the stark blatancy of these parallel strata that economic inequality barely registered during political debate. Whilst inequality was a minorities’ issue the political classes were busy elsewhere. The difference now being that inequality is affecting white people too, and significantly, they constitute a vote bank.

White supremacists claim that the US was built by, and for white people. Lacking in veracity as this sentiment may be, if one were to indulge in this sentiment for a little longer, then an equally valid conclusion would be that this country has been screwed over for white people by white people. The very sense of greed and entitlement that led to imperialism has extended to neoliberal capitalism- a construct of white intellectual conceit. The former done in the name of King and greed, and the latter in the name of shareholders and greed. The very privileged few have been exploiting the very many since time immemorial. The colour of their skin is, and has been, mere co-incidence.

Figure 1. Percentage of global population living in extreme poverty as defined by the world bank

Since the advent of neoliberal economics the world, as a whole, has seen an upturn in its fortune. If the mere depletion of poverty were to be held as a marker of inequality then the world has never been a better place to exist. Much of this has been due to an upturn in the fortune of Asia, more specifically, India and China. The change in number of people living in extreme poverty has been declining for the last 150 years, but the change over the last 30 years has been staggering (figure 1) especially considering that world population has rapidly increased during this period.

Figure 2. Shows a rise in global literacy rates since globalisation. Source: Clio Infra

Figure 3: Life expectancy in developing economies is catching up with developed economies. The gap has narrowed rapidly since the 1970s.

Other measures of poverty, such as health and education have shown a similar pattern of increase in the very poorest (figures 2 &3). From the data alone it is difficult to say with certainty whether the link between globalization and decreased poverty is absolute, however, it would be safe to say that it is more than casual.

Coinciding with the observed decrease in world poverty has been a relative increase in poverty amongst white Americans (Figure 4). This is not to say that Americans on the whole have suffered. GDP has steadily increased, as have the number of people with higher education (Figure 5). In other words, those with money and education have prospered.

Figure 4. US poverty rates in various ethnic groups. Black, Hispanic, and Asian poverty have gone down since the 1980s, whereas white has slightly gone up. Source census bureau, current population survey.

Figure 5. Employment rates in the US according to attainment of education. Those without college education have seen a rapid decline in employment since the 1980.

Figure 6. Percentage of Black and Hispanic college enrolment has doubled since 1980. In the same period White college enrolment has only seen a steady increase.

The African American population have also seen a relative upturn in fortune. The caveat here though is that they had been essentially emerging from a relative third world economy. It is beyond the scope of this article to talk about the specific problems facing the African-American community and the persisting inequality in most facets of their lives, but proportionately more are involve in higher education and their figures are catching up with the general population (Figure 6). This undoubtedly has resulted in more African-Americans engaged in the higher paid employment.

Figure 7. Scatter plot showing relationship of proportion of high-school education in counties versus swing to the Republican from the Democrats. Source: http//uselectionatlas.org

The principal driver of globalisation has been profiteering. The very poorest in the world have benefited as an unintended consequence. Abandoning of the welfare of under-educated local population, ill equipped for a modern workforce, was much more deliberate. Unsurprisingly, the emerging political divide in America is amongst those that have and haven’t benefitted from globalisation. The strong correlation between lack of education, ensuing economic hardship, and a swing to the Republicans at these elections substantiates this(Figure 7).

In summary, the politics of inequality is not new. It’s novelty amongst the White has made it a talking point. 30 years of neoliberalism and conservative rhetoric, covertly suppressing free thought, systematically denying the poorest decent education and jobs, and fuelling paranoia and hatred of non-whites, has led to the emergence of Trump, a political chancer and opportunist.

Xenophobic rhetoric, a lazy surrogate of globalisation, has resonated proficiently amongst newly disenfranchised white-people. Paradoxically, a more appropriate focus of their ire should be White Republicans who have dogmatically adhered to neoliberalism at the cost of national interest. The time-honoured, crude but Machiavellian, politics of divide and rule is being used by conservative politicians. Amongst the most disenfranchised, xenophobia has inculcated hatred where solidarity should exist.

The answer to the inequality problem lies, not at the feet of hatred and reactionary isolationist politics, but rather in curbing the rampant profiteering that has been the hallmark of western economies. Obscene personal wealth, the flatulence of our bloated neoliberal economy, and Trump as one of its biggest proponents, is unlikely to deliver the change that is needed.