Fabrizio Carmignani writes in The Conversation (17.3.16) about the vexing issue of income inequality, and how it and other forms of inequality could come to dominate the policy debate in this federal election year.
‘The “Growing Together” report launched yesterday by the Labor Party brings the issue of inequality back to centre-stage in the policy debate. One of the most worrying socio-economic trends a country could experience is the increase in income inequality across its citizens.
‘The process of human development; that is, the process through which individuals and communities improve their wellbeing by achieving greater financial security, better health and education, is the result of two key drivers: economic growth and declining inequality.
‘Economic growth is the progressive and sustainable expansion of a country’s wealth. Declining inequality is the necessary condition to ensure all individuals have access to this wealth or, equivalently, that nobody is excluded from the benefits of growth.’