It’s no secret that income inequality has been on the rise in the United States over the past generation. But it has been increasing in most other affluent countries too. This is not a product of cuts in taxes or social programs; it’s due mainly to rising inequality of market income.
Suppose we think it would be good for countries to try to maintain or move toward relatively low levels of inequality, something akin to the levels in contemporary Denmark or Sweden. What is the best way to do that?
My attempt at an answer is in the September-October issue of Challenge.
Lane Kenworthy 
I will copy a portion of a letter from Norm Kurland of the Economic Group CESJ – Center For Economic and Social Justice- which Norm posted on his website regarding the Kelsonian solutions to your observations, which these have been pushing for for 40 years…
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I suggest that (Moore) he receive Michael’s /In Defense of Human Dignity/ and /Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen/, plus Father Ferree’s pamphlet “Introduction to Social Justice.”
You can suggest that he visit the website of the Center for Economic and Social Justice at http://www.cesj.org to learn of our accomplishments since we formed in 1984, especially our rallies for the last 5 years at the Fed, as well as being able to download the two Kelso-Adler books from our homepage.
If you send him an email, cut and paste this quote from Walter Reuther, who I served as director of planning for the Citizens Crusade Against Poverty chaired by Reuther from 1965-68, before Kelso and I teamed up:
*Walter P Reuther*. (President, United Auto Workers) “*Profit
sharing in the form of stock distributions to workers would help to
democratize the ownership of America’s vast corporate wealth which
is today appallingly undemocratic and unhealthy*. The Federal
Reserve Board recently published data from which it is possible to
estimate the degree of concentration in the ownership of publicly
traded stock held by individuals and families as of December 1962.
Preliminary analysis of these data indicates that, despite all the
talk of a “people’s capitalism” in the United States, little more
than one percent of all consumer units owned approximately 70
percent of all such stock. Fewer than 8 percent of all consumer
units owned approximately 97 percent—which means, conversely, that
the total direct ownership interest of more than 92 percent of
America’s consumer units in the corporation-operated productive
wealth of this country was approximately 3 percent. Profit sharing
in a form that would help to correct this shocking maldistribution
would be highly desirable for that reason alone.… If workers had
definite assurance of equitable shares in the profits of the
corporations that employ them, they would see less need to seek an
equitable balance between their gains and soaring profits through
augmented increases in basic wage rates. *This would be a desirable
result from the standpoint of stabilization policy because profit
sharing does not increase costs. Since profits are a residual, after
all costs have been met, and since their size is not determinable
until after customers have paid the prices charged for the firm’s
products, profit sharing as such cannot be said to have any
inflationary impact upon costs and prices*.” [Testimony before the
Joint Economic Committee of Congress on the President’s Economic
Report, February 20, 1967.]
And here are six of the 20 reforms we are advocating under the proposed Capital Homestead Act, which Walter Reuther would have backed if he had not been killed in a 1968 plane crash but which his successors at the United Auto Workers ignored at the expense of UAW members since Reuther’s death:
*
(10 Democratize Ownership of the Federal Reserve. *Provide every
citizen a single, lifetime, non-transferable voting share in the
nation’s central bank and in one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve
banks. This will ensure that the Fed’s board of governors is broadly
representative of all groups affected by Fed policy, and that power
over future money creation is spread widely among all citizens.
**
*(11) Discourage Monopolies and Monopolistic Ownership.* Link all
economic reforms to methods that discourage privileged access to
monopolistic accumulations of private property ownership of the
means of production. Enforce anti-trust laws by providing access to
interest-free capital credit to encourage broadly owned new
competitors to enhance and sustain market-oriented growth.
*(12) Introduce a Market-Driven Wage and Price System.* Gradually
eliminate rigid, artificially-protected wage and price levels and
other restrictions on free trade that afford special privileges to
some industries, businesses and workers at the expense of American
and foreign customers of US products. Replace subsidies with
interest-free credit incentives to farmers who wish to associate
voluntarily in cooperatives and in enterprises jointly owned by
farmers and workers, including integrated agribusinesses. The income
generated by farmer-owned enterprises would supplement farm incomes
and reduce the need for subsidies.
*(13) Restore Property Rights in Corporate Equity.* Restore the
original rights of “private property” to all owners of corporate
equity, particularly with respect to the right to profits and in the
sharing of control over corporate policies. Preserve traditional
powers of professional managers held accountable by Justice-Based
Management corporate governance structures.
*(14) Offer a More Just Social Contract for Workers.* A top priority
during the next decade would be developing a more just “social
contract” for persons employed in the private sector. This would be
geared toward establishing maximum ownership incentives. Instead of
inflationary “wage system” increases, employees would begin to earn
future increases in income through production bonuses, equity
accumulations, and profit earnings. These “bottom-line” rewards
would be linked to workers’ individual contributions, and to the
productivity and success of their work team and the enterprise for
which they work.
*(15) Encourage More Harmonious Worker-Management Relations.*
Promote the right of non-management workers to form democratic
unions and other voluntary associations. Instead of promoting the
traditional “conflict model” of industrial relations, however,
“labor” unions would be encouraged to transform themselves into
democratic “ownership unions.” These ownership unions could become
society’s primary institutions for promoting a free market version
of economic justice, while continuing to negotiate and advance
workers’ economic interests, including worker ownership rights and
Justice-Based Management policies.
Under Capital Homesteading, unions could expand their role in a free
market system by educating and expanding their membership to include
all citizen-shareholders. Ownership unions would enhance the
property rights of all shareholders by enhancing management
accountability and transparency, and protecting against unjust
executive compensation schemes.
Guy, Michael Moore, if he reads these points and then our books, should get a deeper understanding of why America’s basic industries are going down the tube and ending up in countries where foreign wage slaves can take the jobs of unemployed American wage slaves. Michael Moore can not only help in our goal to democratize future ownership of the 12 regional Feds but also begin advocating the workers themselves organize to persuade their leaders to transform labor unions into “ownership unions.”
Here’s an idea: Move to Denmark or Sweden.
I’m having a lot of trouble downloading the linked paper. Is it just me or are others having trouble too?
Hmph. After putting up my previous comment I tried again and succeeded. Weird but problem seems fixed.