Founding Director William A. Darity Jr. provided comments in a new article from Quartz examines President Donald Trump’s proposal to create investment accounts for children born during his second term, and the plan could ultimately widen the wealth gap.
While the policy would provide every eligible child with a government-seeded account, it also allows families, employers, and others to make additional contributions. According to Darity, that structure undermines any claim that the program would function as a redistributive policy.
Allowing those who are richer to put more in than those who are poor runs counter to any notion that there’s any kind of redistributive justice taking place,” Darity said.
Darity also challenged the assumption that saving is equally feasible across income levels, noting that increased saving often comes at a steep cost for families already struggling to make ends meet.
Can the poor save? Well, the answer is yes, the poor can save more, but it is at the cost of their standard of living, which is already meager,” he said.
Read the full piece on Quartz: ‘Trump Accounts’ for babies could make economic inequality worse