I was struck by the tenacious misconception that economic growth is needed in order to address inequality as expressed for example in the recent blog on the Capital Institute website titled Transcending the Tension between Climate Change and Inequality by founder John Fullerton.
We know climate change is linked to our global economic activity and its voracious appetite for energy, mostly in the form of fossil fuels which increase concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Some argue that the problem of inequality cannot be addressed without economic growth and hence the tension referred to in John Fullerton’s blog.
Let’s get this one point straight – economic growth in the US has not reduced but actually increased inequality in the US since the 80s as I discussed in my blog post Economic Growth and Inequality.