In this guest post, Oxfam’s new head of research Ricardo Fuentes
(I really must update my blurb to the right) reflects on a
recent discussion on inequality. When I attend a round table and
I leave with more questions than answers, I know it was a good
one. I recently attended a meeting in London on “Inequality,
Children’s Development and the post-2015 Debate” organized by
UNICEF, Save the Children and Young Lives. It was ambitious, and
it got me thinking. Not too long ago, during the 1980s,
inequality was an unspeakable word in many a policy circle. The
bitter ideological battle between the West and the Soviet Union
played a part in this. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher vowed
to defend freedom against totalitarianism and to disregard the
“politics of envy”. Income inequality in developed countries
rose substantially in those years yet the consensus among
policymakers was something like: “inequality doesn’t really
matter, as long as all boats are lifted. In fact, it creates
incentives and promotes growth”.