columns . The unemployment numbers would be much better without the massive loss of government jobs, and private-sector job growth would, in turn, be higher as those public workers spent money. It would be helpful if conservatives who disagree would offer evidence for why they are so certain that government austerity will make things better. I'd like to hope we'll get somewhere on education, but as for rising inequality, many on the right don't even think it's a problem. So let's debate over whether greater inequality impedes faster growth or promotes it. Again, I think the evidence shows that when inequality gets out of hand (see 1929 and now), it's a drag on the whole economy. Forgive me for noting that conservatives seem to believe that the rich will work harder if we give them more, and the poor will work harder if we give them less. But let's have it out. Arguing in a serious way about the single question of economic inequality would make all the other nonsense of the next five months endurable. What I do know is that if we don't use this campaign at least to define the problems we face, we will end up wasting the $2 billion or so this campaign will cost, and a lot of time. Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments , as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff