Mind the gap: the growth in economic inequality [podcast]

The world is navigating a troubling economic situation. Inflation has become a global issue, concerning policy makers and private citizens equally. Energy and supply chains woes are continuous. Interest rates, consumer prices, and cost-of-living have soared, with many economists positing that the current trajectory is indicative of a coming recession.

Amid these crises, how do we recover? How can we address such financial distress and inequity, and how might we go about enacting more permanent resolution?

On today’s episode, the first for 2023, we spoke with Chris Howard, author of Who Cares: The Social Safety Net in America, and Tom Malleson, author of Against Inequality: The Practical and Ethical Case for Abolishing the Superrich, on the social safety net, the ethical implications of extreme wealth, and what steps can be taken to achieve economic equality.

Check out Episode 79 of The Oxford Comment and subscribe to The Oxford Comment podcast through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our expert authors.

Recommended reading

If you would like to find out more about the social safety net in America, we’ve made the introduction to Chris Howard’s new book, Who Cares: The Social Safety Net in America free for 3 months.

Before writing Against Inequality, Tom Malleson argued on behalf of economic democracy in After Occupy: Economic Democracy for the 21st Century. Its first chapter, also free for 3 months, can be found here. Tom also co-wrote Part-Time for All: A Care Manifesto with Jennifer Nedelsky, which proposed a plan to radically restructure both work and care.

We’ve freed Gøsta Esping-Andersen and John Myles’ chapter, “Economic Inequality and the Welfare State“, from The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality (edited by Brian Nolan et al), which discusses the difficulties of capturing the impact of the welfare state on income inequality. 

For further reading on economic inequality, social welfare, power dynamics, neoliberalism, and democratic socialism, check out these recent OUP titles:

• Transnational Social Protection: Social Welfare across National Borders by Peggy Levitt, Ken Chih-Yan Sun, Ruxandra Paul, and Erica Dobbs
• The New Power Elite by Heather Gautney
• Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom by Benjamin L. McKean
• Would Democratic Socialism Be Better? by Lane Kenworthy

Lastly, check out these Open Access journal articles and book chapters, which can all be found on Oxford Academic:

• “Introduction: Why Do Governments Struggle to Reduce Inequalities?” from Public Policy to Reduce Inequalities across Europe: Hope Versus Reality (August 2022) by Paul Cairney, Michael Keating, Sean Kippin, and Emily St Denny
• “Bringing the market in: an expanded framework for understanding popular responses to economic inequality” by Arvid Lindh and Leslie McCall in Socio-Economic Review, April 2022
• “‘It’s the value that we bring’: performance pay and top income earners’ perceptions of inequality” by Katharina Hecht from Socio-Economic Review, October 2021
• “On the Impact of Inequality on Growth, Human Development, and Governance” by Ines A Ferreira, Rachel M Gisselquist, and Finn Tarp from International Studies Review, January 2021
• “Billionaires” by Tino Sanandaji and Peter T. Leeson from Industrial and Corporate Change, January 2013 

_{Featured Image: Towfiqu barbhuiya, CC0 via Unsplash.}