Conferences

Wealth Inequality and the Eroding Middle Class

Conference of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy

November 4 & 5, 2007
George Watts Hill Alumni Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Keynote Address: Robert Kuttner

Robert Kuttner is a co-founding editor of The American Prospect, a co-founder of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Distinguished Fellow at Demos.

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Panel I. Rising Economic Inequality: Why We Should Care

Recent reports of an increasing gap between rich and poor have brought renewed attention to claims of disparities in wealth and income in the U.S. and abroad. This panel examined the data underlying the claims: has the distribution of wealth and income changed dramatically over time? How do race and ethnicity correlate to economic status? If inequality is on the rise, what does this mean for us as a society? How much income inequality is "too much"?

Moderator: Lisa Keister (Professor, Department of Sociology, Duke University)

Speakers: Joel Handler (Richard C. Maxwell Professor of Law and Professor of  Policy Studies, UCLA); Lingxin Hao (Professor, Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University); Mark Rank (Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis); Alan Reynolds (Senior Fellow, Cato Institute); John Schmitt (Senior Economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research)

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Panel II. Labor Markets, Income Inequality and Globalization

In an increasingly globalized marketplace, capital crosses geopolitical boundaries with increasing fluidity.  Given this new economic reality, is it possible to address problems of income and wealth inequality in one nation in isolation? Is economic inequality the inevitable consequence of a fungible labor market?  How have trade agreements shaped the global economy?  What role does immigration play and what is its effect on the U.S. labor market? 

Moderator: Catherine Fisk (Douglas Blount Maggs Professor of Law, Duke University)

Speakers: Frances Ansley (College of Law Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee); Ron Bloom (Special Assistant to the President, United Steel Workers); Judy Scott (General Counsel, Service Employees International Union); Harley Shaiken (Professor, Departments of Education and Geography and Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley; Louis Uchitelle (Business Reporter, The New York Times)

• Listen to Panel Two.
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Panel III. How Law Constructs Wealth Patterns

Wealth inequality is not a natural phenomenon?it is a product of social and public policy choices, often encoded in law.  This panel investigated ways the law can perpetuate wealth inequality or act as a lever for change.  Can certain areas of the law function in a more progressive manner to alleviate entrenched wealth inequality?

Moderator: Stephen Berzon (Partner, Altshuler Berzon LLP)

Speakers: Ana Avendano (Associate General Counsel and Director of the Immigrant Worker Program, AFL-CIO); Jonathan Forman (Alfred P. Murrah Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma); Kent Greenfield (Professor of Law and Law Fund Research Scholar, Boston College); Patricia McCoy (George J. & Helen M. England Professor of Law, University of Connecticut); Ann O'Leary (Deputy City Attorney, San Francisco)

• Listen to Panel Three.
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Panel IV. Charting our Next Steps:  Removing Obstacles to Change

This panel engaged the critical question: what now? What are the political consequences of our definitions of socioeconomic class? Are stronger unions the path to the middle class or do we need to look for new paradigms?  Which strategies for change are most effective at the state or local level and can they be duplicated more broadly? 

Moderator: Melody Barnes (Executive Vice President for Policy, Center for American Progress)

Speakers: Mary Beth Maxwell (Executive Director, American Rights at Work); John Quinterno (Research Associate, Budget and Tax Center, NC Justice Center); Michael Selmi (Professor of Law, George Washington University); Michael Zweig (Professor, Department of Economics and Director, Center for the Study of Working Class Life, Stony Brook University)

• Listen to Panel Four.
• Watch the first half of Panel Four.
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Other resources:

• Read speakers' biographies and sample bibliographies.
• View photos from the conference.

Proceedings of the conference will be published in the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy, Spring 2008.