Press Room

"The support for more equal wealth distribution 'should surprise no one,' said Sam Pizzigati, an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and Editor of Too Much, an online weekly on excess and inequality.

"'Previous research has shown clearly that Americans, given the choice, opt for the much more equitable distribution of wealth in Sweden over the top-heavy distribution we have today in the United States,' he continued.

"'And keep in mind that no Americans have ever voted for greater inequality,' he said.

"Of course, policies are not framed to the public as filling the pockets of a select few. 'The rule changes over the past three decades that have so tilted our nation's treasure toward the richest of our rich have all been cloaked as moves that would enrich all Americans, not a special wealthy few,' Pizzigati noted."

“From what we’ve heard from those inside the room, the climate finance mobilizer’s meeting convened by the US State department appeared to be more of a technical dog and pony show about how US agencies and organizations are engaging the private sector,” Janet Redman, from the DC based think tank the Institute for Policy Studies told RTCC.

“Any discussion of innovative sources of new public finance, like a financial transaction tax, was sidelined – in spite of demonstrators outside calling for a Financial Transaction Tax and the Norwegian Minister of International Development, Heikki Holmås, joining the rally calling for new public money.”

They are surely and unfortunately right that what we will save by ending these wars has already been “spent” on the future, baked-in costs of misguided decisions made during those wars. But that doesn’t mean that the prospect of a “peace dividend” is gone.



That’s because the ending of the wars is coinciding with a broader defense downsizing, propelled by the battle over the budget deficit. And the effects of automatic budget cuts known as “sequestration” on the Pentagon budget will actually produce a smaller downsizing than any of the previous postwar periods: smaller than after the Cold War, or the Vietnam War, or the Korean War.



. . .

To get to a Pentagon budget that is sized for our new postwar world, the downsizing momentum needs to keep going. While the war budget declines, we need to make sure that the “regular” Pentagon budget comes down with it. This is where a peace dividend can be found.