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India, US face hurdles in channeling hatred of rich

By Pranab Bardhan: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Shanghai Daily, December 8, 2011

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[By Zhou Tao/Shanghai Daily ]

Inequality is on the public's mind almost everywhere nowadays.

Indeed, in India and the United States, widespread popular movements against rising inequality and elite greed are becoming highly salient issues in looming national elections.

Yet, in both countries, some social inequalities have been on the decline over the last few decades. In India, certain historically disadvantaged groups (particularly among the lower castes) are now politically assertive.

The most egregious vestiges of caste discrimination are gradually disappearing. Similarly, in the US, discrimination against women, African Americans, Latinos, and homosexuals is declining.

These developments reflect a democratic advance in both countries. At the same time, however, the fabric of democracy is being torn apart by a staggering rise in economic inequality.

Generally, economic inequality is easier to justify than racism and other forms of invidious discrimination. A fundamental tenet of American society is that everyone has an equal chance - a belief that appears more plausible with the decline of social bias.

In India, this myth is less powerful, but there is a general feeling, shared even by some of the poor, that the rich deserve their wealth because of their merit, education, and skills.

There are two problems with this argument. First, education and skills are not inborn talents. The rich have access to better schools, health care, nutrition, and social support than the poor, which plays a decisive part in later academic and social success.

Pre-school children in rich families have better nutrition, health care, and mentoring; there is evidence that much of the brain damage due to malnutrition for poor children may have already, irreversibly, happened by age three.

When students from poor families start to fail in school, they have little or no access to remedial classes, whereas the rich receive expensive coaching from private tutors throughout their education. As a result, India has the world's largest number of school dropouts.

Sociologists in the US have also documented adverse "neighborhood effects" for poor children in inner cities. In Indian villages, where residential patterns are often even more segmented, such effects are acute.

The other problem in both countries is the rising importance of "unearned incomes."

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