Trying to Bridge the Gap

On Mon., Nov. 7, Plymouth State University held its final lecture of this semester's Saul O. Sidore Lecture Series. The lecture's featured speaker was Robert Kuttner, presenting Income Inequality in the US: What Are the Facts, What Difference Does it Make, and What Can Be Done About It?

The lecture examined the politics that hurled the United States into the recent economic recession. 

Kuttner made a point to explain, in detail, the policies that were put in place to pull the United States out of The Great Depression almost a century ago, and referenced that time period as an era in which the people trusted the government.

Kuttner then explained how the deregulation of finance and business has led to an ever-growing gap between the very wealthy and the very poor in America. 

 "Part of this story is about the hollowing out of the public university," said Kuttner, who dedicated much of the lecture to touching on issues pertinent to college students.

College students are facing difficulties trying to pay for school as well as finding jobs after they graduate. Kuttner pointed out the rising cost of education in public institutions where college debts are reaching all time highs. 

Encouraging the audience to "connect the dots between the personal and the political," Kuttner wanted to clearly relate policies that deregulate finance to the social hardships that students coming out of college will face, including college debt and unemployment.

"The state is turning its back on student's in-state institutions," said Kuttner. "This is wrong."

The challenges students are facing pursuing higher education and entering the middle class are more difficult than ever before. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the non-rich to enter the middle class. This is the effect of the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor. 

"There is a whole pattern of inter-generational inequality where the social status of the parents becomes the social status of the kids," said Kuttner, who during the lecture emphasized the drastic change in the middle class that has taken place within just a few decades. "A middle class, middle aged person circa 1955 could feel pretty good about the government," Kuttner said, labeling this generation's social inequities "the fruit of politics."

While Kuttner strongly supports financial reform and progressive regulation, he does acknowledge that both political parties are responsible for the economic downturn in the United States. 

 "I think the finger prints of both parties are on this case," said Kuttner, who referneced the Clinton Administration's deregulation of finance as one of the many reasons for the economic mess that the country is in today and labeled the Obama Administration as a "missed opportunity."

Kuttner related the problems that the student body will be facing in the near future to the national Occupy Wall Street movement, encouraging the generation entering the workplace to take charge, and use their voice and voting power to make changes in leadership that can effectively fix the social problems they live with. 

"Sometimes regular people are ahead of political leaders," said Kuttner. "If we lead, maybe, just maybe, the political leaders will follow."

Robert Kuttner is the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, a magazine that was founded in 1989 by Kuttner, Paul Star and Robert Reich. In addition to editing The American Prospect, Kuttner is an established author and a distinguished senior fellow at Demos.