Social Justice Activism

lower aggregate saving and investment. Conversely, education raises incomes and
promotes growth because it helps to unleash the productive potential of the poor.
Economic Liberalism, Deregulation and Decline of Unions
John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer (2006) of the CEPR point to economic liberalism and
the reduction of business regulation along with the decline of union membership as one
of the causes of economic inequality. In an analysis of the effects of intensive Anglo-
American liberal policies in comparison to continental European liberalism, where
unions have remained strong, they concluded "The U.S. economic and social model is
associated with substantial levels of social exclusion, including high levels of income
inequality, high relative and absolute poverty rates, poor and unequal educational
outcomes, poor health outcomes, and high rates of crime and incarceration. At the
same time, the available evidence provides little support for the view that U.S.-
style labor market flexibility dramatically improves labor-market outcomes. Despite
popular prejudices to the contrary, the U.S. economy consistently affords a lower level
of economic mobility than all the continental European countries for which data is
available."
More recently, the International Monetary Fund has published studies which found that
the decline of unionization in many advanced economies and the establishment
of neoliberal economics have fueled rising income inequality.
Information Technology
The growth in importance of information technology has been credited with increasing
income inequality. Technology has been called "the main driver of the recent increases
in inequality" by Erik Brynjolfsson, of MIT. In arguing against this explanation, Jonathan
Rothwell notes that if technological advancement is measured by high rates of
invention, there is a negative correlation between it and inequality. Countries with high
invention rates — "as measured by patent applications filed under the Patent
Cooperation Treaty" — exhibit lower inequality than those with less. In one country, the
United States, "salaries of engineers and software developers rarely reach" above
$390,000/year (the lower limit for the top 1% earners).
Globalization
"Elephant curve": Change in real
income between 1988 and 2008 at
various income percentiles of global
income distribution.
Trade liberalization may shift
economic inequality from a global to
a domestic scale. When rich
countries trade with poor countries,
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