By Andrew Leigh
Equality: What it Means and Why it Matters
Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel
Polity Press, $24.95
Over the past decade, the discussion of inequality in Australian politics has reached unprecedented levels. This isn’t just because the income share of the top 1 per cent has grown; it’s also because inequality tugs at our sense of fairness. Inequality isn’t just about economics; it’s also about what’s right.
In a breezy 119 pages, Equality: What it Means and Why it Matters is an edited conversation between Thomas Piketty, one of the leading economists working on inequality, and Michael Sandel, a political philosopher whose course “Justice” has for many years been Harvard’s most popular undergraduate class.
One of Piketty’s most powerful points is that inequality is not inevitable. He points to Sweden, whose strong social safety net has delivered a high degree of gender equity and social mobility. Yet until World War I, votes in Swedish elections were proportional to wealth, meaning that in some municipalities the richest person had more than half the votes. Nothing is frozen.
Despite the rise in inequality over the past generation, Piketty observes that the long-run trend has been towards more equality, with the abolition of slavery, the expansion of the franchise, progressive taxation and the rise of unions helping to reduce economic inequality, gender inequality and racial inequality.
Michael Sandel, left, andThomas Piketty have co-written a timely book called Equality: What it Means and Why it Matters.Credit: Getty Images
Education is fundamental to egalitarianism. As the share of people attending higher education grows, Piketty emphasises the need to expand opportunities to get a quality university education. If top-tier colleges fail to expand when demand grows, he argues, then the result will be that many first-in-family students will be unable to get a great education. He might have pointed out that largely public systems such as Australia and Canada have been better able to expand in this way than countries where many of the leading universities are privately funded, with donors resistant to serving more students. When Ivy League institutions admit more students from households in the top 1 per cent than from the bottom half of the income distribution, it is difficult to argue that they are operating on merit alone.
Harvard students near the Cambridge campus’ Widener Library. Ivy League colleges are doing little to enhance equality.Credit: AP
A concern about meritocracy animates Sandel. Even a fair meritocracy would “cultivate hubris among the winners and humiliation among those left behind”. Sandel argues that one reason right-wing populists have gained ground is a backlash by working people without degrees, who have felt angered by a “rhetoric of rising”.
Indeed, evidence suggests that when university-educated Europeans and Americans are surveyed, prejudices against less-educated people are now stronger than prejudices against ethnic minorities. With career success closely tied to education in many countries, the authors argue that this political backlash requires a more inclusive politics as well as a more expansive education system. This includes recognising the dignity of work: honouring and esteeming people who work in sectors such as gardening, cleaning, retail, maintenance and other frontline occupations.
Part of the problem is that the decline in community institutions has reduced opportunities for class mixing. In Australia, as in many other nations, people have become less likely to play organised sport, less likely to attend religious services, less likely to join social movements, and less likely to volunteer. Public institutions such as transport, parks and health clinics can help to remind us of our commonalities. Rebuilding community is fundamental to reducing inequality.
Aligned to this is a strong sense of patriotism – a pride in belonging to a shared community. The authors argue that it would be a mistake to cede patriotism to the right. As Sandel argues, a multinational company that chooses to hide its profits in a tax haven is acting unpatriotically – refusing to support the common good in the country that makes its success possible. Social democrats, he contends, should be forceful in articulating our definitions of patriotism.
Equality: What it Means and Why it Matters is no more than an appetiser. Those interested in knowing more will want to delve into Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Capital and Ideology, and Sandel’s Justice, The Tyranny of Merit and Democracy’s Discontent. But it serves as a good taster, and a reminder of why inequality matters. For Australia, egalitarianism has always been at the heart of the national project. Ours is a country that prefers “mate” to “sir”, where our beaches don’t have private areas, and where we pride ourselves on the notion that no one is better than anyone else. Reducing inequality and building community isn’t just good economics – it reflects our deepest values.
Andrew Leigh is a member of the Australian Parliament. His most recent book is Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia.
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