A Reflection on Austerity and Higher Education,Increasing Inequality and a Suffering Earth

Abstract

"In the case of the environment first they deny that climate change or species loss is occurring, then they deny that human economic activity is responsible, then, after they are forced by reality to accept those facts they will claim that it will cost too much to counteract either. Their final refuge when all else fails will be that it is too late to do anything about these environmental blights. Those who benefit greatly from the trend in increased income inequality, who are not troubled ethically by it, adopt a similar strategy in regard to it. First they deny it is occurring. Then they deny that it is the direct consequence of policy. Then they claim that it would cost too much to change the trend. And then their final refuge is that it is really too late to do anything about it. In recent years the power of climate change deniers has grown, as has that of those who deny that the increase in income inequality is occurring. The message of denial is rather resilient. It is a testament to the power of advertising and mass messaging to be able to convince an increasing number of people that neither trend is occurring despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Policy makers are making this planet less habitable for future generations both by what they do and what they refuse to do. The top of the income distribution benefits disproportionately. Policy makers over the last thirty plus years through tax rate reductions for the wealthy, privatization of the commons and public assets, cuts in social and public infrastructure, cuts in social safety nets, the development of liberal trade regimes and the curtailment of the power of organized labor, have directly transferred income and wealth from the bottom and the middle to the very top."(pg 1 )