Home  About  Chapters  Policy  Publications  Join  Jobs  Donate  Blog  Towards A New New Deal Conference in Washington DC, April 9th, 2008. Photos by Nick Bradley. News from the National Office Post-Election Center TI Launched Roosevelt LiveBlogs the Presidential Debate On Campus Midwest Regional Fall Policy Workshop Blum speaks at Vermont Campus Compact conference Coverage of the Johns Hopkins Chapter Launch > More "When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die." — Eleanor Roosevelt    Reduce Income Inequality > Roosevelt Home > Roosevelt Challenges > Reduce Income Inequality By James D Coan Categories: Economic policy, Poverty and social justice The Challenge: reduce America's growing income inequality Important Progressive: accomplishing this challenge will contribute directly and specifically to the progressive values embodied by Roosevelt's Statement of Principles Meaningful: our contribution to this challenge will produce a real change in the lives of our fellow human beings. One can imagine a world in which the challenge is solved, and such a world is better than the one we live in today. Relevant: the challenge is relevant to the social contract project that Roosevelt has embarked upon Income growth has been concentrated in the highest income earners recently. Average CEO pay was over 400 times that of an average production worker, but the figure was closer to 100 times back in 1990 (http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/26/news/economy/ceo_pay/). The preferred economic index to measure inequality, the Gini Index, has been rising since the early 1980s, and a higher Gini Index represents higher income disparities. Progressives are concerned with providing a basic standard of living to every American, but that goal is undermined when productivity gains accrue more to the wealthy and those less well off are not doing as well. Education is no longer even an avenue to success; much of the income growth has been at the very top (such as the top 1% or even more substantially, the top .1%), but many more people are now going to college than that small slice of the population. Innovative We're looking for policy challenges where innovation is needed: where there isn't already a clear solution or best practices, but solutions can be developed creatively. Our goal is to develop options, not to lobby or advocate for a solution that is already known or to debate among several yes or no outcomes or pre-defined policy choices. Other organizations do the important work of debating and lobbying, that's just not our place in the process. Typically if you're looking at a standard policy debate you can apply what's known as the "Roosevelt Reframe" to develop new strategies to advance shared values. So rather than "should we engage in race-based affirmative action in college admissions" to which the potential answers are "yes" and "no", you can ask "how do we make our colleges more diverse", a goal we hope is shared by those on both sides of that debate. Among other topics, innovation can come from trying to tackle excessive executive compensation, changing the tax code, and investing in good schools. Feasible Approachable: given the level of research and discourse already available and given who else is working on the issue, college students with a range of experience levels and with varied types of expertise can contribute meaningfully to the debate and are likely to think of good ideas. We don't want something so technical only engineering majors can contribute to it, or something that is already dominated by another think tank or advocacy organization. Practical: the challenge is stated as a specific, measurable, and achievable goal, incremental progress toward which could be made by chipping away at the problem at various levels of government. The statement is not too broad or too narrow. One good way to make sure something is a good policy challenge rather than a debate or advocacy problem is to think of what sorts of innovative ideas might be produced for the 25 ideas publication series on that topic. The myriad ways to try to reduce inequality will allow students with many interests to get involved. The Summer Research College can identify some of the most promising avenues to help reach greater equality and strengthen the middle class. Comments Kyle Atwell, Sun 8 Jul 10:07 pm PST: Think income inequality is one of the biggest problems in the world. However, I also am concerned this topic would be too broad, and also similar to "Working Families" from this previous year.   The Roosevelt Institution is a nonpartisan, nonprofit national think tank devoted to bringing students' policy ideas to the policy process. The opinions expressed on this site are exclusively those of its members. DC Headquarters: Roosevelt Institution / 2100 M St NW Suite 610 / Washington, DC 20037 || (202) 833-1359