UFE's Chuck Collins on the Shadow Conventions

Saturday, July 29, 2000 Posted at: 6:45 p.m. EDT on CNN

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Chuck Collins, and welcome.

Chuck Collins: Hello. Great to be here! United for a Fair Economy is a national organization concerned about the growing inequality in America. We are one of the six national organizations working to convene the national Shadow Conventions. These are parallel conventions aimed at having real debates about issues that neither of the major parties is addressing.

We have a conference hall set up at the University of Pennsylvania and have four full days of programming and studies based on the campaign finance forums, growing inequality of poverty and the failed drug war.

Question from Alexxis: Mr. Collins, do you think the Shadow Convention will decrease or increase voter participation? What is your goal?

Chuck Collins: Our goal is to give voice to ordinary voters who don't feel the major parties are addressing their concerns. Our hope is to boost voter participation.

Question from Idpoirp: Mr. Chuck Collins, what, in your opinion, is the most major issue that neither party is talking about?

Chuck Collins: I think as a country we are drifting toward economic apartheid -- a divide that is growing between "haves" and "have-nots." We hear a lot about the economic boom, but we are becoming much more unequal as a society.

Both major parties are focused on those who have benefited in the current economy, but not the 60 percent of the population who have not seen their real wages return them the buying power they had in 1973.

In-Depth Coverage of the Republican National Convention
Question from Charon-CNN: Chuck, can you give us some clear examples of these inequalities and the kinds of remedies you're proposing?

Chuck Collins: Both wages and wealth ownership are more unequal than at any time since 1920. The richest one percent of the population has more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.

Some of the solutions to this problem include raising the minimum wage, expanding home ownership opportunities, promoting savings through universal savings accounts and fair tax policy.

Question from Texanbybirth: So, Mr. Collins, you believe in high taxes and no tax cuts, right?

Chuck Collins: I support broad tax cuts for people who have not participated in the boom, but I don't support repeal of the estate tax, which falls only on the richest two percent of the population. We oppose tax policies that worsen inequality.

Question from Imackie: Chuck Collins, what is fair in your view?

Chuck Collins: The rule of the economy has been tilted to favor large asset owners at the expense of wage earners. So, for example, taxes on wages are higher than taxes on income from assets.

In the thirty years after World War II, everybody in America saw his income double. In the last 30 years, the bottom 60 percent of the population has seen its real income fall or remain flat, where only the richest five percent of the population has seen its wages or incomes doubled. Forty years ago, we had a significantly fairer economy.

Question from Cole: So, would you give these tax cuts to those earning under a certain amount and what amount do you think is fair?

Chuck Collins: There are conservatives and progressives who all support the idea of raising the no-tax threshold to $30-$40 thousand a year household income. These are households that already pay more in taxes through social security withholding than they do in income tax.

Question from Alexxis: What effect will your proposed reforms have on the economy in general?

Chuck Collins: Too much inequality is bad for the economy. Lower and moderate-income people are participating in the economy as consumers largely because they are working longer hours and going deeper into debt. This is not a long-term healthy situation.

At the same time, so much of the economic rewards going to few households is also bad for the economy. A broader-shared prosperity -- like in the 30 years after World War II -- will help strengthen our middle class and be good for the economy.

Question from Idpoirp: Mr. Collins, in the long run, do you think the Internet will help reduce these economic inequalities?

Chuck Collins: I think the Internet, like all technology, is a tool that has the potential to either bring us together as a society or polarize us more. Technology itself will not ensure greater equality and access to opportunity, but it is a marvelous tool for sharing information and, therefore, sharing opportunity.

Question from NextExit: Mr. Collins, people are in debt more because they are encouraged to spend, to keep up with the Joneses and the Jones’ children. If people were just encouraged to save, wouldn’t that solve some of the problems?

Chuck Collins: People are in debt both because of the consumer drive that you are talking about but also because of real stagnant wages. So people are going into debt because of basic needs like healthcare, or their car breaks down or they are buying food, not just keeping up with the Joneses.

But I agree that our culture right now is not encouraging savings. The savings rate -- what households save each year -- has gone from 11 percent in 1980 to two percent today. We support tax-free savings accounts as a way to help boost personal savings.

Chat Moderator: Do you have any final thoughts for us?

Chuck Collins: I encourage people to watch the Shadow Convention or log on to http://www.shadowconvention.com to learn more about what we are doing in the next five days. Also visit our Web site at http://www.ufenet.org to learn more about what you can do to address growing inequality in America.

The former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Brandeis said we can have democracy or wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.

We are drifting towards becoming a plutocracy, where wealth governs our democracy, but it doesn't have to be this way.

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Chuck Collins.

Chuck Collins: Thanks for having me.

Chuck Collins joined the Allpolitics Chat via telephone from Philadelphia. CNN.com provided a typist for him. The above is an edited transcript of that chat. (CNN) – Chuck Collins is the co-founder and co-director of United for a Fair Economy (UFE). Founded in 1995, UFE is a national non-partisan organization that draws attention to the dangerous consequences of growing income and wealth inequality in the U.S. and inspires action to reduce economic inequality.