JUNE 2015 Income inequality Advancing our great national debate on getting ahead Chrystia Freeland on why we should worry. Frank Buckley on why we shouldn’t. Brian Lee Crowley Munir Sheikh says we should points out be more concerned about social that Canada mobility than income inequality. is already doing plenty. Victoria Bateman says economic disparity in the West is all about sex. Also INSIDE: Iain Duncan Smith: Kinder, gentler Decisive action A movement of Poverty and dependency Canadian needed on hope for Aboriginal aren’t just issues of the left Conservatives? internal trade people PublishedPublished by by the the Macdonald-Laurier Macdonald-Laurier Institute Institute PublishedBrianBrian Lee Lee Crowley, byCrowley, the Managing Macdonald-LaurierManaging Director,Director, [email protected] [email protected] Institute David Watson,JamesJames Anderson,Managing Anderson, Editor ManagingManaging and Editor, Editor,Communications Inside Inside Policy Policy Director Brian Lee Crowley, Managing Director, [email protected] James Anderson,ContributingContributing Managing writers:writers: Editor, Inside Policy Past contributors ThomasThomas S. AxworthyS. Axworthy ContributingAndrewAndrew Griffith writers: BenjaminBenjamin Perrin Perrin Thomas S. AxworthyDonald Barry Laura Dawson Stanley H. HarttCarin Holroyd Mike Priaro Peggy Nash DonaldThomas Barry S. 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Inside Policy: 8 York Street, Suite 200, Ottawa ON, Canada K1N 5S6, PH; 613-482-8327 2 Inside Policy — The Magazine of The Macdonald-Laurier Institute Inside Policy: 8 York Street, Suite 200, Ottawa ON, Canada K1N 5S6, PH; 613-482-8327 2 Inside Policy — The Magazine of The Macdonald-Laurier Institute 2 Inside Policy – The Magazine of The Macdonald-Laurier Institute insidepolicy [march].indd 2 14-04-01 10:00 AM 2 Inside Policy — The Magazine of The Macdonald-Laurier Institute insidepolicy [march].indd 2 14-04-01 10:00 AM insidepolicy [march].indd 2 14-04-01 10:00 AM From the editors Contents ncome inequality. The two words have become nearly inseparable in media 4 Kinder, gentler Conservatives commentary about jobs and the economy, as fears are raised that a large Stanley Hartt number of us are being left behind as a lucky few amass great wealth. 8 Understanding technology, security, I This edition of Inside Policy takes a close look at the issues. Liberal and liberty in the modern world MP Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist and author of the bestseller Neil Desai Plutocrats: The rise of the new global super rich and the fall of everyone else, 11 It’s time for decisive action warns of “a winner-take-all phenomenon, with incomes at the very, very on internal trade top — the 1 percent, and even the 0.1 percent — surging, and a hollowing Ailish Campbell and Brian Kingston out of incomes and jobs in the middle”. To give one example, she points 13 Should Canadians stop worrying about out that “the share of low-wage jobs has doubled from 22 percent to 33 inequality? NO percent of overall employment in Ontario”. She calls for a new wave of Chrystia Freeland “transformative social and political thinking” of the kind that met the 15 Should Canadians stop worrying about challenges of the Industrial Revolution. income inequality? YES George Mason University professor Frank Buckley disagrees. He F.H. Buckley argues that while there are legitimate concerns about inequality in the United States, Canada is “one of the fairest societies in the world” and that 17 Do something about income inequality? We already are the “Canadian Dream” of achieving prosperity through hard work is alive Brian Lee Crowley and well. Moreover, Buckley points out that there’s not much that can be done about the global forces that create income inequality, and that more 18 How helping income inequality can hurt social mobility harm than good can come of trying. Munir Sheikh Social mobility is what we should really be concerned about, writes former Statistics Canada Chief Statistician Munir Sheikh. He says that 19 The equality debate should be more while income inequality is thought to be the cause of immobility, many about sex Victoria Bateman policies that redistribute wealth to the poor actually prevent them from achieving independence because they are so poorly designed. He says that 22 Government needs to get life in despite years of lip service, the welfare trap is still with us in dozens of prison bill right programs that perversely