Thread by @AditiJuneja3

Hi. I was on the @ForbesUnder30 list this year. I have heard a lot of critiques of the list and how intergenerational wealth/access plays a role in success, especially at a young age.

I think lists/stories like this should include people’s debt as well as wealth for context.

https://twitter.com/forbes/status/1017004328278745089

We should also include how people make use of government programs and resources to succeed relative to jobs created.

The roads we drive on? Didn’t build it.

The postal service that delivers products? Didn’t build it.

The huge tax break she’ll get this year? Didn’t earn it.

We should also talk about how much more expensive it is to be poor than well off.

The inability to buy thinks in bulk really reduces your marginal profit.

High interest rates on loans rather than loans from parents cuts into profits.

Being unbanked? Credit scores? Etc.

Im not saying that I didn’t work hard or that Kylie doesn’t work hard (though I don’t know that).

But, I don’t think I work as hard as a mom working multiple jobs for a minimum wage.

Hard work is not enough. There are structures that impact success.

If you want to DO something about all of this. I recommend supporting @fightfor15 and other orgs working towards a living wage for all workers (including abolishing the subminimum wage for people with disabilities).

I’d support unions that give workers collective power.

I’d read All the Single Ladies by @rtraister and follow @equitablegrowth to think about how to expand the infrastructure of work to support our new reality - that women work.

The infrastructure of work was built for white men. We need a new infrastructure that works for us all.

Also, I’ll note that some women (namely women of color) have always worked. However, society was not built for us. We had to make do. As @rtraister points out in her book, things become trendy and policy priorities when white women do them.

I listened to @AnnieLowrey discuss her new book on universal basic income (UBI) with @karaswisher yesterday. Two reasons the idea has a hard time catching on in the US: 1) our culture of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, 2) racism. itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rec…

Now, for those of you who would call me a communist for these ideas:

1) Communism would suggest that property/means of production are owned by the state. NO ONE is advocating for that.
2) Communism imagines a manufacturing economy, it wouldn’t work in our Information economy.

For those who would be concerned about how we’d pay for all of this and whether it would stifle growth. We no longer have a scarcity problem. We have a distribution problem.

Let me explain:

The world produces enough food to feed the world. We don’t distribute it well and we waste a lot of it: project-syndicate.org/commentary/how…

Housing in the US: We have approximately 5 vacant homes for each homeless person in the US blog.amnestyusa.org/us/housing-its…

The US spends twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries (because we are unable to collectively negotiate prices due to our fragmented system): time.com/5197347/us-hea…

College tuition has skyrocketed. There is dispute about whether that’s due to cuts in state funding or administrator salaries, but there is a cause and presumably it can be addressed:

fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy…

washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/g…

Again, we don’t have a scarcity problem. We have a distribution problem. We need to acknowledge that when holding people up as the hallmarks of success. We need to change our structures so more people have access to opportunity and it’s not just an accident of birth. And we can.

@voxdotcom invited me to expand on this thread. Here’s that piece: vox.com/first-person/2…