Joseph Stiglitz: The Price of Inequality | The New School
The impact of inequality on societies is now increasingly well understood - higher crime, health problems and mental illness, lower educational achievements, social cohesion and life expectancy. But what are the causes of inequality, why is it growing so rapidly, and how is it affecting the economy?
These are the questions Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University, will discuss in a presentation of his latest book, The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future. In this talk, Stiglitz will discuss how, left to their own devices, markets are neither efficient nor stable, and will tend to accumulate money in the hands of the few. He will also demonstrate how government policies and political institutions, far from countering these trends, often enhance them, and that politics frequently shapes markets in ways that advantage the richest over the rest. This in turn weakens democracy and the rule of law by putting more and more political power in the hands of the wealthy. Beyond these social and political costs, however, inequality has grave consequences for the economy. Moving money from the middle and bottom of society to the top-as has increasingly been happening-stifles entrepreneurship, produces slower growth and lower GDP, and also even destabilizes the economy.
Throughout the course of the evening, Stiglitz will illuminate how the growing inequality in America and many other countries is not only unfair, but also unwise. The talk will also strike a hopeful note, arguing that the current trends are in no way inevitable and he will put forth the concrete set of reforms that he proposes in his book, which would create an economy with less inequality and more growth and opportunity. These are vital issues for an election year in a country that is still struggling to get its battered economy back on track.
The presentation will be followed by a discussion between Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Cohen, director of the New School Graduate Program in International Affairs and Teresa Ghilarducci, Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Analysis and director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School, moderated by New School president David Van Zandt.
The New School, a university in New York City, offers distinguished degree, certificate, and continuing education programs in art and design, liberal arts, management and policy, and the performing arts. THE NEW SCHOOL | www.newschool.edu
Location: Tishman Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall
10/04/2012 7:00 p.m.
Пікірлер: 40
I have shared this on Facebook with tags in the hopes that any general search on economics and inequality will flag it for those searching
I bought Stiglitz's book on a lark and haven't been able to put it down. Surprisingly readable for a PHD. His analysis is fundamentally sound in a way that few currently in economics seem able to compete with. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who holds office in America today. It certainly changed my perspective in many important ways.
excellent talk!!!
The book and its argument is more relevant than ever! It adds to the discussion now underway, that has been triggered by Thomas Pikkety's book.
I like reading your books
What America requires in these dark and portentous times is a "New Deal" kind of a political program that brings about the consensus for a better society. As world leader America should do this.
I get it now, Companies are dependent on the legislative branch, for "beneficial legislation" giving great incentive to companies to become manipulators of the legislative branch. Through company driven legislation, the rest of the people get screwed, while those on top get raises. I knew our problem was fascism, I just needed that little connection between companies and legislation.
wonderful discussion. thank you
Awesome video a must see.
What Stiglitz refers to as "rent seeking" is what Marx called "accumulation by dispossesion" rather than accumulation through profit on capital.
@coreycox2345
5 жыл бұрын
That is an excellent way of putting it, humanityfirstnow.
Essential listening for any person who wants to activate change
@coreycox2345
5 жыл бұрын
"Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy" is a cookbook for how to fix much of the current mess we find ourselves in, Kiki Perry. I feel like I am listening to the voice of reason when I hear Joseph Stiglitz.
is that term "Rank seeking?" That is exactly what is going on, our economy is this pie that is staying relatively the same size, with a bunch of people trying to get a bigger piece of it. Its hard for those caught up in the competition, to see that if they would simply improve the wealth of the lower class, they would have a bigger pie, but that would take a collaborative effort on the part of all companies, to end the corruption, and raise the lower class from the ashes.
I would direct everyone who has watched this movie to think of one concept: MONEY. Suppose i was allowed to counterfeit money while everyone else had to work for it. No matter how hard you work, I will always have more money than you do. No matter how many inventions or discoveries you make I will always be able to buy you out. Now most people think that money are those pieces of paper than the government prints out. yes that is some of the money. But the majority of the money is created out of thin air by private commercial banks. The do a scam where they take your promissory note and create a negotiable instruments that is then exchange for their own money. They claim it is a liability but inflation balances their books. It would serve well for everyone to understand the various types of money and how it is created. This is the mystery which only a few people in the world really understand. i am beginning to understand it and although I have researched it for more than 20 years I am not sure if the liability is overcome by inflation. Logically it appears that it does byt you have to be able to make models and test it empiracally. One of the worst things that happens when money is concentrated into a few people is that normal people cannot start their own businesses. We are in a debt based system where a few people have taken over the creation of money and these people charge a personal tax, called interest, This is illegal in the USA because money is suppose to be in accordance with article 1, section 8 clause 5 of the constitution. Private commercial banks pretend that they are lending a liability but that liability is balance by inflation
Thank you very much for taking the time to watch our video clumpy100. We are very proud to provide quality programming that educates the mind, and stimulates debate. Keep watching!
Very true. In the meantime, the richest families in America have already spent north of half a billion dollars and continue to aggressively lobby Washington to abolish the inheritance tax. I just don't know how much hope there is when most Americans (just like Europeans) continue to vote against their own interests, on the basis of the American Dream of one day belonging to the one percent. The clearer it is that they never will, the more desperately they are fixated on the pie in the sky.
Very good comprehensive view of the real America.
Profoundly Intellectually Honest !!!
The problem is greatly compounded by the demise of liberal, reform politics in the U S A over the last 30 years. If reform is impossible - and it is - then more radical popular movements will take it to the streets as in the Occupy Movement of a couple of years ago. The current political system is so completely dominated by the bankers and the military industrial complex that New Deal-style liberal reforms are almost unthinkable. The Democratic Party is as beholden to Wall Street as the Republican Party. So, where does that leave us? Not a very hopeful situation.
@coreycox2345
5 жыл бұрын
Good problem definition, Steven Yourke. What should we do about it?
What is "rainkseeking"? He keeps mentioning "Rainks" (sp?)
@kao-leeliaw8517
8 жыл бұрын
+Patricia Leary Rent-seeking. You probably need a hearing aid.
@kinky_Z
8 жыл бұрын
Kao-Lee Liaw He might have had a cold that day.He does have an interesting "Elmer Fudd" type of speech defect. I found another video where it's much clearer. thank you though for your rude diagnosis. Look at this thread and you'll see lots of people who, according to you "need a hearing aid." He also says "Politics shape Markeks", "things we have been experienkcing", and "the United Steaks", as well as "raink-seeking".Maybe it is YOU need a hearing aid?
Change will not occur as long as politician's careers are in the hands of the wealthy. When the top 1% can dictate if a politician can get elected or can boot you out if they want, where does his loyalty lie? Who's interests will He/She serve? Of course his employer's (The wealthy). There shouldn't be any option to have campaign contrubutions by individuals, or corporations or any source other than through taxation. Only then democracy can be re-established, instead of today's plutocracy.
I would like it if those people would say "That's why you have to read his book" instead of "That's why you have to buy his book".
Brazil has he had commented has decreased its inequality level by : 1. electing a marixt president. 2. reducing the overall wealth (growth rate). In other words making the rich less rich is not gonna make the poor better off.
'RENT-seeking' not 'renk-seeking'.
You see? it is you who are interjecting politics into this. Extreme wealth disparity, no matter how you see it politically, is unhealthy for an economy. And if you do look at the data in both on a timeline and country to country, you will see that countries that are attentive to inequality have more success in controlling it. Don't look at us now compared to 1930. look at every year in between. Since the 80s the US has been active in stomping out the influence of labor.
Here's how to solve poverty, unemployment, welfare AND the minimum wage issue all at once, and reverse the recession almost overnight. It's the 'Third Way' that can break the Left/Right ideological impasse. Trying to manipulate banks and corporations into creating jobs is an economic ideology that has proven itself futile. This new 'Third Way' supports capitalism by allowing corporations (including small businesses) to focus on profit and frees them from having to provide social services and jobs. It also frees people from living under the thumb of government-run social programs such as welfare. The 'Third Way' is called an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI). A UBI is an adequate amount of basic income that gets automatically deposited into everyone's bank account every month (roughly the equivalent of a US $10 per hour job). The same amount to everyone, rich or poor, working or not, and with NO MEANS TESTING, so NO new government bureaucracies. People can choose to work and can make as much money as they want to ABOVE the UBI so capitalism remains intact. Switzerland is holding a referendum on this. If it passes, every Swiss citizen will receive an Unconditional Basic Income, rich or poor, working or not. The simplicity of the idea is it's beauty. It has been supported by both left and right leaning politicians as a way to eliminate poverty and avoid violent revolution. Both Milton Friedman and Martin Luther King supported the idea of a Basic Income. It can be funded by diverting most present social service funds into this more efficient model and then shutting down large numbers of government departments except education and medical. (Theoretically, the UBI can be run on a single computer that transfers the UBI into everyone's bank account automatically every month.) Another source of funding could be a Financial Transaction Tax (a tiny percentage taken off every stock market transaction). (This would also address the out-of-control microsecond computer trading issue on the stock markets.) But either way, businesses would not have to pay for for the UBI. A UBI is different than a minimum wage because employers do not pay for a UBI. It is funded through taxes. Employers in low wage industries could retain those low wages because people would no longer NEED high wages if they are just working to add to their Basic Income. There would be no inflation as long as the UBI is funded through taxes and not through 'printing' money. (Inflation is caused by money creation in excess of demand.) Employers also won't need to inflate prices because they won't have to increase wages. In fact, a UBI would be better for business as there would be more people buying products. Business would increase overnight. Instant consumer demand and instant stimulation WITHOUT government intervention! Wherever a UBI has been tried, people worked more, not less, and started small businesses. That's because the money was adequate enough that they didn't need to go into debt to the banks to ask for a startup loan. For instance, in Dauphin, Canada's "Mincome" experiment and in Omitara, Namibia, crime decreased, health care costs went down, and the overall economy improved. Two basic income pilot projects have been underway in India since January 2011 resulting in better food, better healthcare, better children's school performance, a tripling of personal savings and a doubling of new business startups, all leaving the overall economy much healthier than before the UBI. Because there is NO MEANS TESTING, no extra bureaucracy would be needed. We have many unpaid workers in our society. Volunteers, artists, musicians, homemakers, grandmothers, etc. It's now time that they were valued monetarily by society. Most of them are shut out from being consumers because of poverty. It's time for REAL change - an Unconditional Basic Income! But politicians won't do anything this radically positive without a grassroots uprising from the people DEMANDING a UBI. So tell your friends (copy and paste this blurb) and help make the UBI go viral!
Wonderful talk! Oh, and - The Best, you're being profoundly intellectually dishonest. And/or you're not paying attention.
people who are lazy whine, people who are normal work hard. Its that simple. Are you a loafer/taker? or a hard working person?
Correct diagnosis - Wrong medicine!!! You don't fight inequality with soviet economic policies, BUT with reforms and competition.
So many fallacies, so much intellectual dishonesty. 1. the 1 % in the 60's, 70's, 80's are not all the same people. 2. there's been a massive increase in the US population, (particualarlly from immigration). 3.there 's been great economic growth & innovation since the 70's, 80's, generating thousands of new millionaires & billionaires, and a subsequent rise in the standard of living. AND I CAN GO ON ON But the what disturbed me the most is him saying, basically Horatio Alger is dead.
I hate long presentations