Post by ck4829 on Dec 30, 2016 18:40:25 GMT -7
Economic growth is at the center of the policies Gov.-elect Phil Scott hopes to pursue when he takes office next week. In Scott’s view, boosting growth will be the key to addressing the crisis of affordability that has eaten into Vermonters’ standard of living in recent years.
But economic growth alone will not address the problems that have mired tens of thousands of Vermonters in or near poverty during a prolonged period of economic stagnation. That’s because if existing trends continue, growth will benefit only those at the top without curing the stagnation that created the affordability problem in the first place.
The Public Assets Institute of Montpelier has issued a report describing existing trends and proposing steps it believes would allow economic growth to produce broad gains rather than gains narrowly benefiting those at the top of the income scale.
The report finds that the middle class in Vermont shrank by 12 percent between 1980 and 2015. During this time the ranks of the poor grew, and so did the ranks of the rich, though not by as much as the poor.
Growing economic inequality has been recognized nationwide as a cause of discontent on the left and the right. Its ill effects include the proliferation of jobs that don’t pay a livable wage, unaffordable or inaccessible child care and higher education, a shortage of affordable housing, which creates a vicious spiral of economic distress, plus dismally high rates of poverty among single parents. Poverty among children, in turn, creates conditions of disadvantage that stifle opportunity and widen the economic gap.
The problem of economic inequality is not just an issue of fairness. The point isn’t to punish the wealthy or redistribute their wealth merely as a matter of justice. Rather, the problem is that inequality creates broad economic stagnation that affects everybody, especially the middle class, but also the wealthy.
Thus, Scott’s affordability crisis and the inequality cited by Public Assets are the same thing. The high costs of housing, child care and higher education mean that for a growing number of Vermonters their earnings are swallowed by the necessities of life, if they can afford them at all. What that means is that they do not have the discretionary income to spend in the state’s economy, creating the kind of economic activity that spreads wealth broadly within the state. And it means they cannot afford higher education without incurring crushing debt, which then becomes an additional damper on the economy.
Economists have spoken of the virtuous circle of economic prosperity where good wages and affordable housing and education serve to bolster the middle class, creating ladders out of poverty and creating a broadly prosperous nation, rather than a nation where prosperity is enjoyed by a narrow band of the increasingly privileged few.
Public Assets has proposed some steps that would address the affordability crisis by making life affordable for those tens of thousands of Vermonters who are experiencing the effects of a vicious circle, not a virtuous circle. The vicious circle traps people in poverty because the job, housing and education opportunities are not there for them.
These steps include a $15 minimum wage, which Public Assets says would raise the incomes of 85,000 workers. The higher wage should be accompanied by an increase in the earned income tax credit, which the state uses to help working families.
The Public Assets report also urges greater investment in child care to make it available to more people. Some counties have only enough high-quality child care for 10 percent of 2-year-olds, the report says.
www.timesargus.com/article/20161230/OPINION01/161239997/1021
Read more: burnoatus.freeforums.net/thread/483/virtuous-circle#ixzz4UNLUvwFO
But economic growth alone will not address the problems that have mired tens of thousands of Vermonters in or near poverty during a prolonged period of economic stagnation. That’s because if existing trends continue, growth will benefit only those at the top without curing the stagnation that created the affordability problem in the first place.
The Public Assets Institute of Montpelier has issued a report describing existing trends and proposing steps it believes would allow economic growth to produce broad gains rather than gains narrowly benefiting those at the top of the income scale.
The report finds that the middle class in Vermont shrank by 12 percent between 1980 and 2015. During this time the ranks of the poor grew, and so did the ranks of the rich, though not by as much as the poor.
Growing economic inequality has been recognized nationwide as a cause of discontent on the left and the right. Its ill effects include the proliferation of jobs that don’t pay a livable wage, unaffordable or inaccessible child care and higher education, a shortage of affordable housing, which creates a vicious spiral of economic distress, plus dismally high rates of poverty among single parents. Poverty among children, in turn, creates conditions of disadvantage that stifle opportunity and widen the economic gap.
The problem of economic inequality is not just an issue of fairness. The point isn’t to punish the wealthy or redistribute their wealth merely as a matter of justice. Rather, the problem is that inequality creates broad economic stagnation that affects everybody, especially the middle class, but also the wealthy.
Thus, Scott’s affordability crisis and the inequality cited by Public Assets are the same thing. The high costs of housing, child care and higher education mean that for a growing number of Vermonters their earnings are swallowed by the necessities of life, if they can afford them at all. What that means is that they do not have the discretionary income to spend in the state’s economy, creating the kind of economic activity that spreads wealth broadly within the state. And it means they cannot afford higher education without incurring crushing debt, which then becomes an additional damper on the economy.
Economists have spoken of the virtuous circle of economic prosperity where good wages and affordable housing and education serve to bolster the middle class, creating ladders out of poverty and creating a broadly prosperous nation, rather than a nation where prosperity is enjoyed by a narrow band of the increasingly privileged few.
Public Assets has proposed some steps that would address the affordability crisis by making life affordable for those tens of thousands of Vermonters who are experiencing the effects of a vicious circle, not a virtuous circle. The vicious circle traps people in poverty because the job, housing and education opportunities are not there for them.
These steps include a $15 minimum wage, which Public Assets says would raise the incomes of 85,000 workers. The higher wage should be accompanied by an increase in the earned income tax credit, which the state uses to help working families.
The Public Assets report also urges greater investment in child care to make it available to more people. Some counties have only enough high-quality child care for 10 percent of 2-year-olds, the report says.
www.timesargus.com/article/20161230/OPINION01/161239997/1021
Read more: burnoatus.freeforums.net/thread/483/virtuous-circle#ixzz4UNLUvwFO