A conservative scholar questions whether the US really has an inequality problem

#TIA – If there’s a bright side to the question of economic inequality, Scott Winship has found it. We, in turn, pass it along.

“Scott Winship started his career as a moderate Democrat, believing in progressive solutions to the US’s economic issues. After college, he worked at the liberal community organizing-group ACORN on a campaign to increase the minimum wage.

But over time, Winship switched camps. The poverty and inequality researcher now identifies as a “reform conservative,” and acts as project director for the Social Capital Project, which was set up by Republican US senator Mike Lee. Winship says the key moment came for him after the US Welfare Reform Act of 1996, when the federal government began requiring people work, volunteer, or participate in skills training in order to receive certain government support. He figured the reform would be disastrous for the poor, but has since come to think it was “the best anti-poverty program we have ever implemented.” (Debates about the impact of the policy are still ongoing.)”

Read more at Quartz