Reflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political Scene
Friday, September 13, 2013
Joseph Stiglitz On Income Inequality
Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently gave a powerful speech at the annual AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles. Watching this video leaves one little choice but to feel a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo:
I don't know if you've read his book, Lorne, but his key point is that market forces have very little to do with equality. Instead it is almost all the product of legislation - tax deferrals, subsidies, grants, regulatory privileges and the transfer of natural capital at far below actual value if not simply free - that transfers wealth out of the blue and white collar classes and into the overstuffed pockets of the richest of the rich. Along with that transfer of unearned wealth passes social and political power.
I haven't yet read his book, Mound, but it sounds as if he confirms that the marketplace and the tenets of unfettered free enterprise as the key to wealth are just another of the many myths that the corporate-dominated mainstream press foists upon us ceaselessly.
I don't know if you've read his book, Lorne, but his key point is that market forces have very little to do with equality. Instead it is almost all the product of legislation - tax deferrals, subsidies, grants, regulatory privileges and the transfer of natural capital at far below actual value if not simply free - that transfers wealth out of the blue and white collar classes and into the overstuffed pockets of the richest of the rich. Along with that transfer of unearned wealth passes social and political power.
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet read his book, Mound, but it sounds as if he confirms that the marketplace and the tenets of unfettered free enterprise as the key to wealth are just another of the many myths that the corporate-dominated mainstream press foists upon us ceaselessly.
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