
          The Origins of Inequality
          Reviewed by Hagens, WinnettWinnett Hagens
          Vol. 20, No. 3, 1998 pp. 32-33
          
          Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, Martin Sanchez Jankowski,
Samuel R. Lucas, Ann Swindler, and Kim Voss, Department of Sociology,
University of California, Berkeley, Inequality by Design:
Cracking the Bell Curve Myth, Princeton, New Jersey:
Princeton University Press, 1996
          In truth this is a book far more about the origins of inequality
than a rebuttal for the tired neo-Darwinist arguments advanced by
Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in The Bell
Curve (1994). The authors of Inequality by
Design return the continuing debate on inequality and its
correlate--racism-- back to basics in a way that nearly everyone can
appreciate.
          What re the basics of inequality and racism? Human appetite is
insatiable. No society has sufficient resources to satisfy the desires
of all its members. Inevitably, some get more than others. In its
most basic essence, racism is a nearly universal mechanism for
deciding who gets what in a world where the most desirable goods are
scarce. Ruling groups enjoying affluence or even opulence invariably
fabricate and perpetuate myths disparaging and debasing the ethnic or
racial groups they subjugate and exploit. Such racial myths play a
crucial role in perpetuating inequalities by rationalizing and
justifying oppressive mistreatment of enslaved or indentured
populations upon whose labor the social hierarchy ultimately
rests.
          According to the authors (Department of Sociology, University of
California, Berkeley) of Inequality by
Design, Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve
is merely a contemporary version of a philosophy that is centuries
old: "[ordained by our creator] inequality is
fated; and people deserve, by virtue of their  native talents, the
positions they have in society...individuals' intelligence largely
decides their life outcomes." From this perspective, poverty and
wealth are the artifacts of a kind of cosmic game of chance that we
call genetics. The fault, if there is any, is in nature. If you lose
in the cosmic throw of the dice, blame nature.
          Readers interested in a classic exposé of a failure in social science
research will find Inequality by
Design good reading. Is there really such a thing as
"intelligence?" Is intelligence one, a few, or many things? If you
want to get into the details of psychometrics, if you want a powerful
summary of arguments questioning current understandings (or, are they
myths?) of intelligence, this well written book will hold your
attention. You will learn, for instance, that subordinate racial and
ethnic groups around the world, today and in earlier decades,
invariably do worse in schools an don school tests than do dominant
groups regardless of the genetic differences or similarities between
them. The deprivations of oppression and exploitation--the hunger,
disease, ignorance, pervasive alienation, and self-hatred--that typically accompany inferior status often guarantee
collective failure in schools. The history of blacks and Latinos in
the United States fits the pattern. As the authors put it: "it is not
that low intelligence leads to inferior status; it is inferior status
that leads to low intelligence test scores. ...A racial or ethnic
group's position in society determines its measured intelligence
rather than vice versa."
          Yet, the real power of this book is not its devastating rebuttal
of the phony "prosperity of the fittest: argument, but it is more
central and compelling counter-theme that inequality is a property of now societies are
structured, not of how individuals talent is distributed. And
when it comes to inequality the United States has the greatest degree
of economic inequality of any developed country. This inequality
between classes in America has, moreover, been growing for the last
quarter century. In the United States, 120:1 is the ratio of the
average CEO's pay to the average industrial worker's pay. In Britain
the ratio is 25:1, nearly five times less. In Germany it is 21:1 and
in Japan 16:1.
          The kinds of extreme inequalities we see reappearing in America
today, according to the authors, are neither natural nor
inevitable. We help fewer of our citizens than do other
industrialized countries and when we do help we do so less
generously. For example, we provide medical insurance for some
residents; most nations provide medical insurance care for
all. According to the authors, in America we spend less on children
than any developed country in the world. We give families with
children tax breaks, most nations give family allowances. While it's
free enterprise for the poor in America, tax breaks, subsidies, and
cozy regulatory relationships all spell socialism for the rich,
especially the super rich, in America. There should be little wonder
that the gap between rich and poor, or even the rich and middle class
Americans continues to widen. 
          Many Americans, perhaps a majority, believe that inequality is
needed to motivate people to work hard and propel economic
growth. But, if this premise of American inequality is true, how
much inequality is needed? Some of the research the authors of Inequality by
Design present suggests that extreme inequalities in income
may actually impede economic growth rather than stimulate it. One
research study touched on in the book showed that key redistributive
policies (homeowners subsidies, health plans, child care, etc.) do
not inhibit the functioning of economies instituting such
measures. Another study mentioned in the book even showed that product
quality improved as the wage gap narrowed between managers and
workers.
          This kind of research is ground zero for a coming debate that,
unless our current prosperity is perpetual, will occur when good
times turn bad. Now, as the authors of Inequality by
Designinsist, is the time for Americans to accept
responsibility for the inequality our choices have created instead of
blaming nature. This book is an excellent place to enter a critical
dialogue that will, one day, reshape our nation.
          
            Winnett Hagens is director of Fair Representation
Programs at the Southern Regional Council
          
        