Let’s re-invigorate the middle class

It’s not news that the American middle class is shrinking. Or that our democracy cannot thrive with so many of us living on the edge of a financial cliff. President Barack Obama recognized this when he recently called economic inequality the “defining challenge of our time.”

Yet in this climate of recession, high unemployment, and a stagnant minimum wage, many politicians seem determined to force even more families into poverty by reducing or eliminating what remains of the social safety net—food stamps, extended unemployment benefits, and access to health care through expanded Medicaid eligibility.

Pundits of all political stripes are talking about income inequality and what should be done to address it. Forbes magazine and others from the traditional business sector insist that the free market will conquer even this intractable problem as long as we avoid demonizing the wealthy and instead inspire the poor to work harder to attain the vaunted status of the financially elite.

CNN’s columnist John D. Sutter recently proposed seven ways to address income inequality including breaking down social barriers between the economic classes so they understand each other better, improving public schools, raising the minimum wage, taxing the rich at a reasonable rate, giving workers a stake in their companies through unions or ownership, reducing campaign contributions from the corporate sector, and giving money directly to the poor through “cash transfers.”

He noted the promising work being done in Kenya and Uganda by Give Directly, a non-profit that “empowers the poor to set their own priorities” by spending contributions any way they see fit, relying on the poor to best know their own needs. Contrary to fears that the monthly cash transfers would fund tobacco or alcohol purchases, the recipients chose to pay education and medical expenses instead. Many started or expanded a small business such as raising chickens, small vending operations, and local transportation efforts.

These kinds of strategies to address income inequality may soon be put to the test in one of the largest and most diverse cities in the world, New York City, where a new mayor was inaugurated on Jan. 1, promising an administration sharply focused on the widening gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a traditional progressive, will lead New York City through these tumultuous times. His vision differs greatly from that of his predecessor, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a man so convinced of the need for his leadership, he had the term limits laws rewritten so he could serve an extra term as mayor.

The new mayor’s inaugural rhetoric was on point: “When I said we would take dead aim at the Tale of Two Cities, I meant it. And we will do it. … We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love.”

The mayor’s cornerstone proposal is to pay for pre-kindergarten classes by raising taxes on the wealthy, but the proposal depends on the approval of the governor and state legislature and is sure to be opposed by New York’s moneyed classes.

Not everyone was impressed with Mayor de Blasio’s agenda. The Wall Street Journal called him New York’s “Divider In Chief,” harshly criticizing him for setting a divisive tone instead of “civic courtesy and grace” in his inaugural address.

Back in Reno, we look forward to electing a new mayor and City Council in 2014 to lead our troubled city out of a multi-million dollar debt built on the trickle-down theory of economic prosperity. But will they be willing to take on the “defining challenge of our time” and figure out how to strengthen the economy while reviving the American dream of opportunity for all?

Or will they be content to merely maintain the status quo?