What would MLK say about economic inequality today?

The question you raise is one I addressed with great urgency in my final years, and I believe the core diagnosis remains as accurate today as it was then. In Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, I wrote plainly that depressed living standards for Black Americans are not simply the consequence of neglect — “They are a structural part of the economic system in the United States” That structural reality did not vanish with the passage of civil rights legislation. Legal freedom and economic freedom are not the same thing. I also insisted, in that same work, that we were entering new territory: “We have left the realm of constitutional rights and we are entering the area of human rights” The Constitution assures the right to vote, but it offers no guarantee of adequate housing, income, or education. And yet, in a nation of such extraordinary wealth, it is morally right to insist that every person have a decent house, an adequate education, and enough to provide for their family. What I would say today flows directly from what I said then. The gap between poverty and plenty — what I called poverty amid plenty — remains a moral indictment of our priorities. I argued in Where Do We Go from Here that a guaranteed annual income was both economically feasible and morally necessary. If we could spend billions on war and on reaching the moon, we could lift God's children from poverty here on earth. The work of the fourth movement — economic justice — remains unfinished.