In a spat with Jeremy Cronin over the causes of inequality

Jeremy Cronin, Deputy Secretary General of the SA Communist Party and Deputy Minister of Public Works, wrote a whinging piece in the Cape Times last week, attempting to characterise my colleague Geordin Hill-Lewis and me as Thatcherites who do not understand the causes of inequality. This is presumably because of the article I wrote (read it here), which was carried in the Sunday Independent two weeks ago, in which I described how Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan fashioned the Washington Consensus which gets Cronin's knickers in a twist.

He could not be more wrong! We understand it very well. Inequality in South Africa is caused mostly by the huge gulf between the employed and the unemployed which is itself due to weak economic growth.

Yesterday the Cape Times carried our rejoinder - here - where we set out our views.

You can make your mind up on who has the better arguments.