Douglas K. Smith, guest blogger
Introduction
I am Doug Smith, the Executive Director of Columbia Journalism School’s Sulzberger Leadership Program. I have authored a number of books on best practice for business, based on three decades of consulting experience. I am also one of the co-founders of Econ4, a network of economists and other analysts seeking to shift the way economics is taught, understood, and practiced—away from the failed practices that produced the Great Financial Crisis and the extraordinary income and wealth inequalities that now imperil our democracy.
On May 6, I submitted written testimony to the Finance Committee of the Rhode Island Senate in support of a proposed law to help rein in rising economic inequality in the state. The law would give preference in the awarding of state-government contracts to businesses that limit the ratio of pay between their highest-paid executive and lowest full-time employee to no more than 32-to-1. The text below is based on my testimony.
For Triple Crisis readers unfamiliar with Rhode Island, it is the smallest by area of the fifty U.S. states. It is, however, also the second most densely populated, making Rhode Island’s economy essential not just to Rhode Islanders but also people across the Northeast region of the United States. Today, Rhode Island’s economy is in serious jeopardy—in large part because of the raging income and wealth inequality imperiling people across the globe—from Greece to Great Britain and, yes, from Romania to Rhode Island.