If there is no painless way to combat inflation, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggests, then we should at least be honest about who will endure the pain.
A. Philip Randolph, the great civil rights leader and labor organizer of the mid-20th century, said in 1966, “How we combat inflation, or the threat of inflation, is at bottom a moral or social question.”
Randolph was arguing against those who believed that the only way to fight inflation was for the federal government to cut back on spending, particularly on social services. Although he conceded that something had to be done, he cautioned against embracing policies that would inflict disproportionate harm on the most vulnerable. Yet many political elites claimed there were no alternatives. Americans were told, as they are being told now, that to save “the economy,” sacrifices would have to be made…
