Fairness and Structural Impoverishment

            Structural impoverishment is unfair, and unfairness is un-American. In my last post I said that we have a problem with structural impoverishment, which is a process in which people become poor as a result of structural changes over which they have no control. In our time, such structural changes have included economic collapses like the one that occurred in 2008 and long, slow processes like the gradual outsourcing of manufacturing to other parts of the world. Such changes have destroyed not just the livelihoods of individuals but the very structure of opportunities on which those livelihoods depend.

                The collapse of the structure of opportunities strikes at the heart of our concept of fairness. We Americans believe that a person’s success should depend on his individual effort. We pride ourselves on having equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcomes. We ask for a chance to succeed, not a guarantee of comfort, but when the structure of opportunities collapses, a person’s success or failure can no longer be attributed solely to his or her effort and talent. Instead, he or she has become the victim of large forces over which he/she has no control.

                For example, millions of people all over our country receive wages that decline in value every year. No one suggests that their work is worth less every year. No one suggests that they become lazier every year. We all understand that their wages are declining because of competition from workers in parts of the world where wages are much lower than they are here. Employers here are able to take advantage of our large number of unemployed people to exploit their workers by paying them less every year in real terms.

                The fact that wages are declining means that profits are increasing. Companies are able to retain a growing portion of their revenue because they are able to pay less to their workers. So, owners of companies and shareholders in corporations can do very well. No one suggests that today’s owners are smarter or more entrepreneurial than the owners of the past. No one suggests that they work harder than their forebears. Not at all. They are simply the beneficiaries of structural forces that they did not create and cannot control.

                A process in which people become rich or poor for reasons that have nothing to do with their efforts or their talents is clearly unfair. It is contrary to everything we believe as Americans, and as Americans, we need to see that and do something about it. We cannot restore the conditions of the past, but we can adopt policies that restrain exploitation and create new opportunities. It will not be easy, but we can do it, and finding the ways to do it is our most important policy issue.