Debt and Income Inequality

The common refrain is that if the poor would simply learn financial responsibility and make smarter choices, then they could work their way out of poverty. This is far from reality, yet when those in poverty fall short and are forced into predatory lending, it is often blamed on their lack of personal responsibility. The same sentiment is present when those who take on student loans, once proclaimed as "good debt," to advance themselves and find themselves saddled with lifelong burdens. On this episode, Dr. Frederick “Fred” Wherry, the Townsend Martin, Class of 1917 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, the Director of the Debt Collection Lab (debtcollectionlab.org), and the Founding Director of the Dignity + Debt Network (a partnership between Princeton and the Social Science Research Council: dignityanddebt.org), and Dr. Fenaba Addo, Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, will join the show to discuss the relationship between debt, income inequality and wealth inequality, and the role our culture plays in the cycle of poverty.