Wealth inequality. What can or should we do?
Before class, listen to this podcast about a particular case where a piece of land was restored to a Black family. We will discuss this podcast in small groups, first with general reactions and then with specific discussion points.
General reactions
- Summarize
- What happened in this podcast?
- React
- What surprised you?
- What resonated with you?
- What questions does this raise for you?
Specific discussion points
- Discuss this quote from the end of the podcast
If you can inherit generational wealth, you can inherit generational debt. That’s debt that Manhattan Beach owes to the Bruce family. It’s debt that California and this nation owes to many more families like the Bruces. — California State Senator Steve Bradford
- Nozick argued for the fundamental importance of individual property rights acquired by just acquisition and just transfer. What might Nozick say about this story?
- What might Rawls have to say about this story?
- The question of racial reparations is much broader. When you get here, wave me down so I can play for the class this 2019 exchange between Senator Mitch McConnell and author Ta-Nehisi Coates about reparations. What role might knowledge of history and quantification of wealth gaps play in these debates?
Optional further reading
Faber, J. W. 2020. [We built this: Consequences of New Deal era intervention in America’s racial geography.(https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122420948464) American Sociological Review, 85(5), 739-775.
Killewald, A., Pfeffer, F. T., & Schachner, J. N. (2017). Wealth inequality and accumulation. Annual Review of Sociology, 43, 379.
Oliver, M., & Shapiro, T. (2013). Black wealth / white wealth: A new perspective on racial inequality. Routledge.
Massey, D. S., \& Denton, N. A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Harvard University Press.
Pfeffer, F. T., & Dvir-Djerassi, A. (2022). The US Wealth Distribution: Off the Charts. Socius.
Coates, T. (2014). The case for reparations. The Atlantic, June.
Los Angeles County. Returning Bruce’s Beach: A 100-Year Journey to Justice.
Connected story: The history of Cornell University
Our class module is focused on wealth inequality across households. We have emphasized how social policies disparately took wealth from some groups while enabling other groups to build wealth. The household wealth distribution has historical origins that people created.
Institutions are also built on wealth. Cornell University is built on the homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ. In addition, the founding wealth of founded derived in part from the sale of other lands stolen from Indigenous people. Here are a few resources to learn about this history.
Indigenous Dispossession and the Founding of Cornell. The Humanities Pod.
Many other resources as part of the Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project.
A land acknowledgment from the Cornell American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program.