Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/170989 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11005
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Income inequality is on the rise, and everyone, from President Obama and Pope Francis to Prince Charles and Standard & Poor's, is talking about it. But these conversations about what are arguably the most significant changes in the distribution of incomes and earnings since the 1940s are leading to very different views on how public policy should respond. This is as true in Canada as it is in almost all of the other rich countries where inequality has risen. In this paper I tell two stories about inequality – one from the perspective of those who feel it is not a problem worth the worry, and the other from the perspective of those who see it as "the defining challenge of our time" – in order to clarify the issues facing Canadians, and what public policy should do about them.
Subjects: 
inequality
poverty
middle class
top incomes
social mobility
JEL: 
D31
I32
J62
J65
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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