Economic Justice

(April 2004)

David Kelston, issue editor, writes:

The theme of this issue of Mass Dissent is economic justice, and we present five articles on varied topics that all touch on this central theme.
Our lead article, by Guild member Jason Adkins, discusses the planned acquisitions of Massachusetts’ two largest financial institutions, Hancock Insurance and Fleet Bank, by out-of-state companies. While the effect of these acquisitions on the Massachusetts economy cannot be known now, Jason, whose firm represents consumers in class action litigation with the local giants, identifies various instances of corporate wrongdoing on both their parts, a pattern we do not expect will diminish.
In "How About a Progressive Corporate Income Tax," Scott Klinger, co-director of Responsible Wealth, shows how small businesses, the sector we typically count on to create jobs, are disproportionately and unfairly taxed compared to their larger brethren.
Dedrick Muhammed from United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based non-profit organization, makes very important comparisons of another kind – between African Americans and whites – to show that many of the economic gaps we had thought were narrowing have actually changed very little.
Next, Timothy Muise, an inmate at MCI Shirley (and a frequent contributor to Mass Dissent), writes on Massachusetts’ prison system where, he shows, misallocation of resources leads both to societal suffering (crime and recidivism) and economic waste.
We end this issue with a sobering article by Richard Duffee, a former legal services lawyer and researcher/scholar in India, who discusses some of the enormous economic gaps between rich and poor nations and the policies that perpetuate these inequalities.

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