PHM-Exch> Food for a cynical thought?

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 285



*INEQUALITY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE IMF IN 2011.*

* *

Inequality is at the root of human rights (HR) work. Should I thus find it
cynical that only in 2011 has the IMF ‘come out of the closet’ in a big way
to say that inequality is bad… for Capitalism? The IMF’s F+D (Finance and
Development) Volume 48, Number 3 of September 2011 carried feature stories
under the title *“All For One: Why Inequality Throws Us Off Balance”*.



Here below is what I found. Although probably in some cases out of context,
I quote or paraphrase and I annotate:



*Only so much disparity is ethically and politically acceptable.*



1. For decades, ‘trickle down’ *was* the unspoken bargain of the market
system. (But it does not seem to have worked; instead, economic growth
brought us growing inequalities).



2. Growing inequality breeds social resentment and generates political
instability; it also fuels populist protectionism and an anti-globalization
sentiment. (Is this what worries the IMF?).


For the full Reader, go to


http://wp.me/plAxa-1yO


Claudio
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20120326/4d514b30/attachment.html>