Five ways to narrow the rich-poor gap

Image result for rich poor gap kenya

With the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer as an almost welcomed norm that keeps hitting the national economy a tough blow, there ought to be something that needs to be done.

That and the fact that corruption is almost being normalized, just to ‘secure the bag’.

If there is any ounce of humanity left in society today, we also need to establish ways to help families in our midst that struggle to simply get a meal.

Given that, here are some five ways any economy can adopt to narrow the rich-poor gap.

Image result for rich poor gap kenya

Improve public schools; unify them

There’s no surer ticket out of poverty than a solid education. But that education has to be affordable and it has to be equally distributed. In Nairobi, richer kids go to a private school, which has no formal scholarship program. Poorer students go to a public school that does not perform as well. Education should be a great equalizer, not a source of division. The community would benefit from closing its private school and creating a shared asset in the public-school system. Right now, the business community and richer families have almost no reason to fully invest in the public schools.

Tax the rich at a reasonable rate

Tax rates on the very rich are so low that billionaire Warren Buffett says he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. That has not always been the case. It’s clear the rich are getting a big break on their taxes and should be paying more. The idea isn’t to take so much money that taxation, in and of itself, closes the income gap. It’s to use that tax money to fund programs, like public education, that could give everyone a fair shot at success in an economy that only serves the very wealthy.

Give workers a voice in their companies

Union membership is way down since more equal times. In the early 1960s, nearly 35% of workers were members of unions, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute. By 2008, that number had plunged to less than 15%. As union membership declined, workers’ voices shrank to a whisper. Meanwhile, the economy, over that same period, pushed a greater and greater share of money to the richest Kenyans. For those who continue to see unions as inefficient or annoying, there are other ways to give workers a voice, such as supporting employee-owned companies. Then, they are involved in decisions about how the company is managed.

Reduce the crazy-huge donations to political campaigns

Rich people these days have the ability and access to essentially buy — or heavily influence — political campaigns. Limits on campaign spending would help level the playing field, ensuring that the majority of the people — not the minority of the rich — elect our representatives.

Break down the social barriers

One of the reasons income inequality persists, says Michael Norton, an associate professor at Harvard, is that people don’t realize how wide the gap between rich and poor has become. Credit masks poverty, and most of us are stuck in an income bubble — we tend only to see and associate with people who are like us, economically. A solution: We should get out of our collective comfort zone and create conversations across the income divide. Willis, a young American, says she wants to come back to her hometown to build a bridge across the lake that largely separates the richer folks on the north from the poorer folks on the south. If they talked more, they might support p

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *