Can the Government Actually Do Anything About Inequality? - NYTimes.com

Thomas Edsall asks Why hasn't democracy reduced inequality?  He asked a series of experts about a recen study that shows how dramatic is the  increase of the share of the top !%.The short answer: ideology

Can the Government Actually Do Anything About Inequality? - NYTimes.com:
by Thomas Edsall

• An intellectual and ideological shift within both political parties toward “acceptance of a form of free market capitalism which, among other characteristics, offers less support for government provision of transfers, lower marginal tax rates for those with high incomes, and deregulation of a number of industries. Financial deregulation, in particular, has been a source of income inequality.”

•  “Immigration and low turnout of the poor have combined to make the distribution of voters more weighted to high incomes than is the distribution of households. Turnout, of course, can also be influenced by legal and administrative measures that make it relatively costly for the poor to vote.

•  “Rising real income and wealth has made a larger fraction of the population less attracted to turning to government for social insurance.”

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