Golden Ticket?

Said Mankiw: "Incomes's deficient
For those who are not quite proficient."
But a higher degree,
For the rich wannabe,
While useful, is hardly sufficient.    


Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw, who served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors to President George W. Bush, has an answer to the persistent question of US income inequality.  In his New York Times piece advising President Barack Obama on dealing with the new Republican majority in the House, Professor Mankiw cites Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz' book, “The Race Between Education and Technology.”  "The authors conclude that widening inequality is largely a symptom of the educational system’s failure to provide enough skilled workers to keep up with the ever increasing demand."


He might better have cited "Winner Take All Politics," by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson.  Their book identifies our Washington politics, dominated by corporate lobbyists, as the active culprit in the growing inequality between the richest of the rich and everyone else.  In this, the educated are as disadvantaged as any.