October 31, 2012

Martin Wolf, but what about the cumulative disadvantage for those officially perceived as “risky”?

Sir, Martin Wolf, in “Romney would be a backward step”, October 31, writes: “[A] challenge is inequality… to the extent that a child’s opportunity depends on the resources of its parents, the result will be more cumulative disadvantage”. 

Though I fail to see what that has to do specifically with Romney, Wolf is absolutely correct, but, then why on earth does he refuse to protest the cumulative disadvantage those perceived as “The Risky” are equally submitted to when trying to access bank credit? 

Not only do “The Risky” have to pay higher interests rates, get smaller loans and have to accept harsher contract terms, but on top of it all, in a cumulative way, the regulators also require the banks to hold more capital when lending to them than when lending to The infallible”. 

If a child’s education was placed under the supervision of a Basel Committee, those regulators, if applying consistently their current paradigms, would perhaps require the children of the poor to contract a special insurance to cover the risks of them not completing the education, because clearly their parents do not have the same resources as the children of the rich. Could Martin Wolf possibly agree with something like that? 

Or is it that Martin Wolf just cannot understand that when you impose a cumulative disadvantage on “The Risky” you are de-facto awarding a dangerous cumulative advantage to "The Infallible”?