Panel sheds light on the distribution of wealth in the United States
A panel of speakers said Friday, at the Conference on World Affairs, that inequality is alive and well in America, and that politicians are its backbone. Despite the serious discussion, audience members showed their interest through laughter and applause.
In an hour-long presentation, panel members Paul Krugman, Joy Zarembka and Jurek Martin spoke of politics, the economy and exploitation in the work place.
Paul Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, said income gap between the wealthiest one percent of Americans and rest of the populations has risen considerably over the years, he says the top one percent are now making 300 times as much as the average American worker.
“It’s back. We’re in this world of enormous inequality,” Krugman said.
Krugman said that the entertainment industry has created misleading messages as to what defines middle class Americans. Krugman has written an economics textbook that CU students use in their classes.
Speaker Joy Zarembka took a different spin on inequality and spoke of it racially. She said that diplomats and policy makers are ironically participating in this inequality. Zarembka shared a true story of an Indonesian immigrant enslaved by an American diplomat. The female worker was not allowed to use the phone, nor was she able to speak to her employer.
“I am shocked that this is happening on U.S. soil,” Zarembka said.
CU has faced several diversity issues over the past two years. Two notable instances took place during student government elections, one in which a black candidate received life threatening e-mails, which made this presentation relevant to CU students and the Boulder community.
