The way that America had more equal outcomes in the 1950s and 60s was yes, in part, through taxation. But it was actually pre-taxation for the most part. And that was in part because labor unions were much stronger. The problem in America today is that the union movement is largely in the public sector rather than in the private sector. So interesting things to look at are how successful will the labor mobilization in Amazon be? You know, how do you unionize workers in our new economy? Right.
Why has the American political system failed to arrest accelerating inequality, and is there anything we can do about it?
• Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail”
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