Few would argue that the nation’s increasing income inequality is a growing and dangerous concern. But for Chris Anderson, “curator” of the annual TED conference where hip people go to hear innovative talks, income inequality is a “partisan” issue that must not be discussed.
Last week, Anderson announced he would not make public a TED video from billionaire venture capitalist Nick Hanauer discussing the negative impacts of income inequality on the economy. Yet after online outrage and a petition telling Anderson to post it, he relented.
Check out Hanauer’s talk here.
Anderson couldn’t let it rest there. After TED released the video, Anderson’s comments that Hanauer’s talk is “needlessly partisan” and “unconvincing” earned him the title “Petulant Plutocrat of the Week” by the Institute for Policy Studies.
What do you think—is income inequality a partisan issue?
This blog originally appeared in ALC-CIO on May 21, 2012. Reprinted with permission.
About the author: Tula Connell got her first union card while she worked her way through college as a banquet bartender for the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee they were represented by a hotel and restaurant local union (the names of the national unions were different then than they are now). With a background in journalism (covering bull roping in Texas and school boards in Virginia) she started working in the labor movement in 1991. Beginning as a writer for SEIU (and OPEIU member), she now blogs under the title of AFL-CIO managing editor.
