President Obama recently issued a frank acknowledgement that the US government must put an end to a growing economic inequality that has lasted for decades. Not only does the trend do serious harm to the "American dream", it also challenges the very foundations of the country. Attaching great importance to reform, Obama certainly wants to resolve a social inequality problem that seriously concerns American society.

"All men are created equal" is a wonderful ideal, but the definition of "equality" has been subject to constant debate. In the face of unacceptable social reality, proponents of equal opportunities versus equal outcomes become more and more dissatisfied. A poor child will have no prospects of attending a good school from the outset, so "equality" has alreaddy disappeared at the starting line. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential hopeful in 2016, himself admitted that his father, a Cuban immigrant of a previous generation, had been able to start as a bar tender and join the middle-class through hard work, but that such things are now almost impossible. Under America's huge debt burden, welfare projects are reduced time and again, and the system for narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor no longer functions.

Obama has recognized the problem and endeavored to push forward such measures as medical reform and increasing the minimum wage, but he still has found no solution to the problem. On the issue of social equality, the contradiction between free competition and pursuing equality is the subject of an endless debate between Republicans and Democrats, and social reform in modern America follows the trajectory of a pendulum.

Roosevelt’s "New Deal" represented a great improvement in economic equality, because the social problems caused by the great depression had weakened the traditional limits imposed by Congress on government. Obama faced the mess left by the financial crisis when he entered the White House. For the first two years of his term, when Democrats held overall control in Congress, he took advantage to press ahead with medical reform. But in a country where social Darwinism prevails his reform measures, in opposition to the concept of free competition, were soon frustrated by strong counterstrikes from republicans. Weak supervision over Wall Street, a sluggish economy, heavy debt, the vicious circle of the polarization between rich and poor and political polarization, and political impediments—all those elements make Obama strong in will but weak in action. He can do little but sigh about the problem of economic inequality.

The mid-terms of 2014 will be upon him soon. Whether in the State of the Union 2014 that Obama is about to address, or during the mid-term election, social inequality will remain a hot topic. In a money-driven system, we can be sure that this chronic sickness of American society will again become a theme of canvassing displays by politicians, but do not expect any genuine action to address the fundamental problem.

The article is edited and translated from《历史性难题遭遇机制卡壳》, source: People's Daily, author: Wen Xian.