With the Economic Policy Institute reporting that chief executive officers of companies earn on average three times more than they did 20 years ago and 303 times more than their employees, the American wealth gap is growing.
UW-Madison alumnus Colin Christopher spoke Tuesday to students and community members about wealth inequality, the U.S. tax system and race, leaving audience members with ideas about how to solve problems in their own community.
To illustrate disparities between the wealthiest and poorest Americans, Christopher showed a video and physically moved the audience outside, changing the distance between their bodies to represent shifts in wealth distribution over the past 20 years.
“The people at the bottom aren’t even seen or heard,” Christopher said. “It’s as if they’re invisible in our society, and it’s pathetic.”
Christopher is the Policy Education Coordinator at NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobbying group in Washington, D.C. He said he believes it is the law, not wealthy people, who are corrupt, so he tours the country encouraging people to get involved in politics.
“People ask, ‘what can I do?’” Christopher said. “It’s daunting, but what each of us can do is to talk about these things. Have those discussions because a lot of people don’t have a clue how bad it is.”
Christopher added he thinks the best way to begin to fight poverty and wealth inequality is redistributing wealth through earned-income tax credits.
Throughout his talk, Christopher invited audience members to share their own experiences with inequality and how they combat it. He also modeled to members how they can lobby for issues they care about.
“Part of the reason why I came here is because I want to get involved with something local,” UW-Madison graduate student Rivka Maizlish said. “It seems really difficult to know how to navigate activism in Madison without knowing where to start.”
