Alan Greenspan on Income Inequality

[northerntropics]

Blames technology for inequality and forgets what he did to kill any regulation that would limit the abuses of capital. Here we have a bunch of banksters printing money by the trillions (around 800 trillion) with the US middle class as a guarantor for the bets they make in the market ... and his response is : "we need cheap imported labor". Fk the problem is not labor, is the casino hedge funds betting on 800 trillion of any conceivable bet.

[northerntropics]

He is there to promote a book that he probably did not write, for which he probably will receive several million dollars on laundered money from the corporations that he allowed to enrich themselves at the cost of the middle class. On top of that he wants to promote the idea to artificially keep wages down to bring even more profits to the lords of capital. He will soon ask himself where did all that hate against Jewish banksters like him came from and blame it on antisemitism.

[blueberriesandbanana]

When he mentions capitalism and competition he starts stuttering because he is trying to conceal his real feeling that some people are just fundamentally smarter and more worthy of success than others, though he tries to cover his elitism by quoting other people and changing the subject.

[Seedofwinter]

The only thing as average us average folk ask for is the ability get checked out in the doctor without burying ourselves in debt, the ability to be able to afford food and heating, and the ability to work for a decent wage. And that decent wage isn't a million dollars a year.

We also don't like our jobs being threatened by underlining problems in the system, such as stock bubbles and unregulated banks. We would like the system to be reformed so such things DO NOT happen.

[pjfs80]

This sounds a bit rubbish. This idea that the best man wins.... mmmm, no. The cheaper prices win, then a monopoly spawns from this and then people are exploited. I'm sorry but I think that he sounds out of touch with the real world. Shame. He sounds like he still can't accept mistakes he made.

[dynomike1964]

He blames the kids and the workers . He is a whore's whore.

[mow1717]

gop hero.you get what you paid off for.

[ziadrizkmusic]

Mr Greenspan says that based on research, there is no relation between income and happiness. But research has shown this to be true only above a certain minimum level of income where all basic needs are met (I think around 50 or 60k avg annual income in US.) Below that, research found a connection between income and happiness, poverty and a general state of well being. A significant proportion of the US population is now living close to poverty. It is a delusion to ignore or dismiss this.

[piezoelectron]

if he weren't there, i don't know what consequences 9/11 would have had.

[gwangjuboy1]

@TheWeeklyTelegram He was the main protagonist for sure, but Ayn Rand's literature was to Greenspan what the Protocols of Zion were to Hitler. There were other supporting characters too, like the spineless politicians who jumped into the fire when Greenspan and Wall Street's finest told them to. All those bonuses that were linked to the issuance of toxic mortgage-backed securities have never been returned either. How many people really know and comprehend that? The greatest scam in history.

[secretbubba3]

Just like the casino the house always wins.

[margovallen]

If you're having trouble getting to sleep at night, put on some Alan Greenspan... a true sleeper :-)

[qwertypoiu4321]

The Poor are getting richer faster than the rich are getting richer. Immigrants and young adults are the new poor while the old poor are getting richer. This form of Class warfare is just an empty misdirection to demagogue the poor and promote coercion.

[dbearTO]

All of the arguments for increasing the tax rate in proportion with wealth I've seen so far boil down to "because they have more money" You're rich, so you should pay more taxes. Not a very good argument. If you accept that people are entitled to private property (income) the burden on those who wish to interfere with that ownership (taxes) and its routinely ignored. The single fact that A is rich and B is poor (income inequality) is not a good reason to interfere with the private property of A.

[ScottBrown666]

@dbearTO Tell that to B when there are one million B's for every rich A and the one million B's start to get hungry and lose their homes. Income equality is necessary for sociopolitical and (SURPRISE!) economic stability. Plus, you're propagating the lie that everyone with money worked hard for it, and everyone who is poor is poor because they're lazy, when in truth, most of the time those at lower economic levels work much harder for much less.

[dbearTO]

@ScottBrown666 I made no statement to the effect that all who have money worked hard for it. Indeed, most probably did not. But as long as you accept the concept of private property there will be many other ways of legitimately acquiring wealth without having to work for it - by the various ways that a legitimate holder of wealth transfers wealth to you in a legitimate way. The obvious example is payment for good or service, but it can also be a non-reciprocal transfer.

[dbearTO]

@ScottBrown666 Moreover, the fact that B is hungry while A is a millionaire does not necessarily speak against income inequality as such. At most we would have to say that A may be obligated to redistribute some minimally sufficient amount of his wealth to B so that B will have the necessities of life, ie not go hungry or loose a home. But that can still be done within the context of vast income inequality. I am not against taxation, but I am against taxation for vacuous reasons.

[dlbnext]

If we bring immigrants it would suppress skilled labor and this would reduce the wealth gap? Apparently the wealthy as defined by you are the middle class skilled worker. No mention of a wealth gap between your crowd and the poor.

[g4macdad]

@AUSM92 Barry Goldwater's economic model is based on exponential growth. The one that EVERY "conservative" subscribes to?! Alan Greenspan and every other relevant economist, has debunked this pyramid scheme a THOUSAND times over. If a more socialist model is not adopted sooner, a more expensive one will have to be, later.

*

Welcome to REALITY

[g4macdad]

@AUSM92

How is he "feigning concern," by telling the TRUTH? Americans are a strange bunch, they HATE the people who tell the truth.

*

Capitalism is based on infinite exponential growth. Infinite exponential growth is FANTASY, so Capitalism as PURE unadulterated FANTASY. Stop shooting the FUCKING MESSENGER!

[IvanPoljasevic1]

So, bring skilled labor into the US. Introduce a level of competition that lowers the wages of skilled labor, and as a result the people will be happy with making less money because everyone else is doing the same? To me it sounds like the spirit of capitalists has always been to lower the wages of their workers, but Im not too sure that they will be happy with it. There is a clear difference between gaining and losing a dollar, and when you lose it is in human nature to retaliate.

[rainzoro]

@shadowgeyser Then you are either suggesting the elimination of the monetary policy or hoping for the FED Chairman to set the "perfect" interest rate. The plot gets deeper when we define the term "perfect." I agree that our entire monetary system is very unstable but don't blind yourself by thinking it is only the public sector that is creating the mess. For every financial crisis I have studied, the private sector was part of the problem as well since the 1600's.

[jjscon123]

He whines and cries about dismal math and science interest from Americans and then goes on to say than we should discourage interest even more by suppressing wages by importing cheaper foreign labor. Oh, and does the douche bag realize that the US also pays the highest UNSKILLED labor rate?

[jjscon123]

I'm sorry, but this guy is just batsh$t FKing crazy. His ideas and theories are responsible to two economic bubbles and yet people are still listening to him.

[MaudsPas]

"If you have an increasing sense that the rewards of capitalism are being distributed unjustly the system will not stand."

Tax the rich bankers at a higher rate then the current 33%, which is the same as small business owners making only $250,000 for some reason...???. The super rich(those making more then 1 million/year), also have access to tax loopholes lowering their tax rate even more.

[Pysosis2]

Fck you Alan Greenspan

[euclon]

Pecking order? What an idiot! Income inequality is an inhernent defect of capitalism; the poor are requisite to the "success" of capitalism; when you boil down all that free market blather, the labor efforts of the poor, and working class in general, ultimately allow the idle rich to be "idle", ie non-procductive in a real sense and economically parasitic on society. Wealth/income disparity is the barometer for the success of any capitalist system; ours is failing... slowly.

[Efficacious24]

Alan Greenspan (former Federal Reserve Chairman) now works for John Paulson's fund. Guess what John Paulson's fund's BIGGEST position is right now? GOLD. . Don't say you weren't told. Protect your families wealth. Visit: goldsave.co/

[justgivemethetruth]

Greenspan creates a straw argument that there is competition in capitalism. This is too complex a statement to say because of other variables. in some simple model of the baker and plumber, yes competiton, these days corporations are owned and controlled by a class that also controls the government and designs society for their benefit. Competition does not figure into it when the capitalist class can buy any idea they want for themselves with a monopoly on capital.

[jamesgravil]

I don't care how much fucking money Greenspan has, he still looks like a bald old prick with a face like an ugly sock.

[rainzoro]

you wanna blame greenspan for simply using monetary policy? instead of fiscal? without explaining why the particular monetary policy was bad for the particular crisis? i see a lot of bafoons in youtube, getting a couple of dumb ass "thumbs up" for posting something they have absolutely no clue what they are talking about.

[lordhighexecutioner]

Greenspan is right about the pecking order problem... the hardest jobs usually need the least education. The ones that are most unpleasant. So why shouldn't they be paid more than they are because the job is hard or unpleasant? People won't flock to such jobs if the pay was more equal.

[lordhighexecutioner]

Let me get this straight. Greenspan says that the answer to inequality is to suppress the wages of the "skilled" by importing foreigners. The net result is that finance and owners of capital make yet more money. In the end, the top 1% get an even bigger share of the pie. This is supposed to address inequality? It would heighten it!

[lordhighexecutioner]

"We don't have enough resources to meet everybody's needs" is an utter lie. The Right Wing pretends that there hasn't been these great productivity gains, technological gains over the years. Michael Hudson said that if the people of the '40s were to be told of the future technological advances, that they'd conclude that people would be living lives of leisure. They wouldn't believe that individuals would be drowning in debt and take on multiple jobs and be worked as they are.

[blorgensteen]

"We don't have enough resources to meet everybody's needs."

Yeah right. What you really mean is that you need OUR resources to meet YOUR needs.

Your kind are the ones raping the planet, not the everyday people.

[kotash2]

inequality is increasing becaue of central banking inflation benefitting a few well connected people at the expense of others. income inequality is increasing b/c of YOU!

Education is PUBLIC- a failed government project

He's says unions and minimum wages are bad

It really matters to us where we are: and YOU are at the very bottom SIR which is why you are lying so much to defend your failed career

[conway668]

We matched the Canadians in union labor during the 1960's. But they maintained there wages better, and we didn't. The answer is political. Reagan. He moved to bust up the unions and provide income tax breaks to wealthy people and busted up the antitrust laws, and F'd up the banks. This put money at the top and undermined the middle class. Unraveling our institutions, and bureaucrats like Greenspan is what helped create an underclass, and huge industrial consolidation, hurting our small business

[mckeonjt]

If income were completely equal everyone would go after the easiest job. The person who ends up with a harder job will notice and they will not work as hard. As you can see if income were completely equal it would be competition to as unproductive as possible. This leads to a low living standard... below anything anyone here has experienced. I know because you either have a computer or there is a library with one in your city.

[mckeonjt]

There is a huge income gap in US. It's (in part) because skilled workers are too expensive. Skilled workers are too expensive because gov't restricts competition which props up wages. If you open the border there will be more competition which will lower wages. The lower wages will stimulate job growth in the country. The job growth will cause more factories to open/upgrade which increases small businesses and contractors. This grows the middle class N tightens the gap. There's more to it Though

[MartorDR]

a human only needs a few essential items to survive each day. A 9-5 job and income is not one of them. Global and communal sustenance to every individual has to be the main concern of man before economics even becomes a factor.

[letnamsiew]

In a egalitarian society , how can you tell the rich people from the poor people ?

[cherylwens]

Can you tell if Japanese are richer or Czechs are richer? Both occupy the two top spots in the income inequality metrics.

[honjo294]

live is always unequal, no two people are the same, in an egalitarian society if you take away wealth, odds are it would be the best looking people or most talented people that would still be valued more and some people would still view nature as unfair, which it is but get over it. whos to say wealth should be fair, if my dad works hard and saves his money, whos to say he should spend it all on himself or save it and pass it on to his children. thats his choice

[wowtrax]

you can't, that's the point...

[ut84ufd]

this guy is so full of shit, and why is he still alive?

what he is saying, is that we need to make middle class of America poor, by outsourcing good paying jobs, makes sense?

he wants to reduce the degree of inequality by making himself and his butt-buddies your masters, and pay all of you an equal pension of 25c an hour, but he would really prefer you work for free

[pr0gm3r]

How can you promote "Competition" in capitalism while employer are pushing the employee to work in "cooperation". The ideology of capitalism is not practice.

if we want to promote capitalism, everything must be in "Competitions."

This competition will leads to rival and wars, which lead to chaos and extinction.

Capitalism must be abandon.

[fubecabr]

There is no free market anywhere. Remember, central banking is a part of the communist manifesto. So is a graduated income tax. So are inheritance taxes. Government taking over the means of production (GM) is also a part of it. Unionization is also a part of the manifesto. So is compulsory public education.

Communism must be abandoned because it leads to genocide, misery, poverty, and environmental destruction.

[TaffyAlpha]

@fubecabr Central Banking is NOT part of a communist takeover. Marx believed that money was a tool of exploitation. This is well documented. Do not attack something you clearly don't understand.

[fubecabr]

@TaffyAlpha

Are you kidding? Have you read The Communist Manifesto????

Marx identified 10 key objectives/milestones necessary for the transistion to communism. Central banking was a key part of it.

Here's a copy and paste directly from it, "Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."

[hoodoo961]

Greenspan's book is still a very good book, full of insights, especially about the history of the Federal Reserve and government during the second half of the 20th century.

[gummoboy69]

Well, If a majority of the people are losing badly under a "free market' capitalist system, how do you get them to support that system?

Remember, this is the same guy was caught completely by surprise about the current economic collapse. Amazingly enough, he looked at the long-term indicators and saw nothing amiss.

[infernalhammer]

Greenspan speaking in plain english, who would have dreamed?

3:55, Interesting idea - the outsourcing of top management jobs! Ah, the march of capitalism.

[philinmotion]

You should focus upon understanding his point of view instead of interpreting everything he says in a way that perpetrate your ignorance.

[philinmotion]

This is pretty unchartered territory to me but I come to think that you people do a very bad job at interpreting his sayings.

[trokoma]

that man and all other like him forgot that we do not live forever. and i am anxious and really dreadful that i call upon those who can to please kill and shut them up forever.

[Mwaterfall]

NOTE:

I SENSE THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF MR. ALAN GREENSPAN'S BOOK, The Age of Turbulance, IS TO FIX THE "INCREASING SENSE THAT THE REWARDS OF CAPITALISM ARE BEING DISTRIBUTED UNJUSTLY [WASTING THE WORLD'S RESOURCES AND WEALTH]"

What bothers me about ALAN is that he somehow still believes that CAPITALISM can work! Influenced by his rich peers, he is not brave enough to set the record straight!

CAPITALISM HAS CAUSED ITS OWN "Turbulance"! IT HAS INCREASED GREED, POVERTY & CRIME EVERYWHERE!

[buzzz1213]

The World is not fair Never was Never will be!

If Greenspan ever came out of his ivory academic tower, he might understand how to find solutions, not just offer lip service!

[kemronirons]

The only reason you do not understand him is probably that you have never been in his academic tower.

[buzzz121]

I was there yesterday sipping $1,000 a snifter glass of rare Armanac courtesy of the US taxpayer, thank you .

[jaymoore299]

His economic tower was a house of cards and it all came tumbling down. Do you live under a rock?

[Kapan60]

Wait...Alan Greenspan's academic tower?

All he did his print money out of thin air to reduce interest rates and give them to the banks.

If I had the ability to counterfiet money like that, I'm sure I could be rich too.

[freedomthrough]

@Kapan60 It's how money works. Money doesn't, never has and never will, have any true value. Just accept it and try to find the best way to use it. The bailout was the right thing to do (they make small bailouts every year in tax subsidies, etc.), but the administration bailed out the bankers and not the banks. That's what's wrong. It's corrupt and ugly and both parties do it. Inflation isn't bad, unless you're saving in pure dollars. If you save in gold or a fund, the "real" value remains.

[freedomthrough]

@Kapan60 Now, don't get me wrong, i dislike him like you do... But i believe in democracy and democracy has to rule the economy too, which means we need regulation and redistribution of income. Also, the "technology brought the income inequality"-talk is just bullshit, it's all political.

[censorshipIsFutile]

Greenspan should lead by example & suppress his own damn wages.

[USRLA]

In a capitalist society free of government competition leads trusts between business man.Companies start merging left and right just to run rivals out of business.They even use the government to their own advantage.

[chopin8826]

false

[USRLA]

Their is not enough resources to meet everyone's needs. Distribution of wealth is not socialist idea when you buy something in the store is consider wealth when you go to walmart that is wealth that is being distributive.This guy expresses my same theories is.

[cpenter]

LOL, if only we could suppress the wages of skilled people; ah Greenspan daring to dream the dream! snark

[redSHIFT69]

Capitalism is simple... in order for there to be big winners, there must be big losers.

[thanksbetotap]

Why on earth do you assume it to be a zero sum game?

[xlightwavex]

see their whole idea is to sell out the usa

so that everyone is equally poor while just a few "globalists exploiting usurary" become rich as emperors

happyniess what a joke how can people be happy when they cant even get health care and they are told to fuck off at a hospital maybe thats what he means we need cheaper skilled work so that when you complain to the doctor you have to tell a mexican guy who doesnt even understand what your saying

[BurtonReingold]

Dr. Greenspan rules.

[23580578]

he rules your jewish ass =heil hitler

[bananarepublics2]

I have read and consulted much on this subject. Remind all of Greenspan's first words: "We won't (in the future) have enough resources for everyone (at least to maintain the lifestyle we had known it as). Read Global 2000 prepared for former president James Carter. Every country now competes against us and we buy foreign w/out regard, Students in U.S. very below level with others in World (EU especially). The pop culture today (wanna be gangbangers)

[moneymagnetelizabeth]

I believe that most of Congress is heavily invested in these private equity firms which to me is a conflict of interest. We have unqualified representation!!!!!!!!!!

[louiethegreater]

Greenspan is clearly a globalist not an American.

[bananarepublics2]

What is an American. Is is a patriot who will deny our empire would ever fall, our middle class will never shrink. Greenspan is global because companies compete globally now, Amer should wake up!

[voicefromthegrave]

I think Greenspan hit the nail on the head here. Material wealth does not equal happiness as many have been convinced to believe. Rather, people are still fundamentally tribal in their mentality and see their own wealth in relative terms to others in their social network. While material things do represent wealth to an extent, it is actually financial security that is most important and the availability of resources at one's disposal, giving that individual more power in the "tribe."

[TheEgger]

I love when he says "we wont have enough resources to meet everybodies needs" when the money spent on the Iraq war alone could have given everybody in the country a home and social services would actually exist

[voicefromthegrave]

The problem is the Iraq war is necessary for the economy, as oil flow drives the global economy. If the flow of oil is disrupted by a dictator, the economies collapse and hundreds of millions around the world die. It really is "just business" but we have enraged the religous radicals in the region and stirred up a hornet's nest, who see us as imperialists, which to an extent they are correct. Unfortunately this is how the world is, and there's not much that can be done about it.

[faszika]

sell your car dont own tv and mobile phones, tell your frends and family to do the same, every day all year.

[ARTAUDIOJOTA]

And things like Haliburton, a virtual monopoly in Iraq's private sector, whome Chenny previously worked for has nothing to do with it?

[kaziqbal]

"when the money spent on the Iraq war alone could have given everybody in the country a home and social services would actually exist"

you also have to keep in mind of the corollary of exponential population growth in a world of finite resources.

[che11usa]

we have to be able to compete with the rest of the world and the fact is we are losing alot of ground. just look at college campuses where foreign students kick american students asses in math,science,engineering,and other areas of academics. to be successful you must produce and we as americans just dont want to accept the fact that competitors our catching up to us. capitalism is competitive,and u can either complain about the inequality or educate yourself to put yourself in a better position

[che11usa]

i'm also reading the book. the bottom line is that everything is about competition. if u want more food on the table essentially ur going to have to take it away from somebody else, because there is a limited number of resources. that is just the way capitalist societies work.

[dabigkid]

Three words: Zero sum fallacy. And all the economists weep. Sigh. ... There is NOT a fixed amount of food in this world, just a certain amount of food that people are willing to make for others. One person's gains do not mean that one other person loses out. Wealth can be created! If you need proof, just go to the "Industrial Revolution" part of your world history textbook. Would you rather live poor today or rich in the 18th century? I bet the former.

[che11usa]

That is true,but that creation of wealth spurred from the procductivity rise due to new capital,therefore we were getting more from the resources than we previously were. If we want to grow more food, than that means that we are going to have to dedicate more resources to agriculture and less to other industries. Therefore society will give up other things; computers, cars, t.v.'s, etc. Two words, Creative Destruction. How many people do you think lost their jobs because of the new machinery?

[dabigkid]

Better question: how many new jobs were created? Your assumptions are all based off one of the worst fallacies from non-economists: that everything is a zero-sum game. Voluntary economic transactions are seldom ever zero-sum because both parties must feel as if they are gaining, or else you'd be stupid to accept. And not all trade-offs have negative externalities. Google "lump of labor fallacy" or "zero-sum fallacy," and read up on comparative advantage.

[che11usa]

I did some research and what I discovered is UGLY. The federal reserve is evil. It is privately owned, and all the profits they make by loaning money to the government goes to the private shareholders. They have a monopoly on the countrys money supply. They create money from nothing and make us pay interest. Abolish the FED! The reason they still operate is because the general whole of the population does not understand how the banking system works!

[che11usa]

What that means is that the wealth created by the new industries was at the expense of the others who lost their jobs. In order to gain something you have to give up something else. Wealth is never just created out of thin air. Just because the wealth of the nation overall goes up doesnt mean that every individuals wealth also goes up. That is the short run tradeoff.

[kaziqbal]

"In order to gain something you have to give up something else. Wealth is never just created out of thin air."

google 'compound interest'

[ARTAUDIOJOTA]

Except when the fed prints money

[justgotbackfromnam]

i like him and it is a good book i'm reading it now.

blaming one person, especially this person for the recession is absurd. It is a collective body that is to blame including consumers-

say no to credit cards.

[hpmc8]

This JERK wrote the Economics portion of Ayn Rand's 'Objectivist Newsletter'

Now, after destroying people's savings with his housing bubble inflation (which destroyed the currency), he now wants to re-distribute the slightly higher earnings of massivly harder work to 'be more fair'

So much for opposing 'collectivism'

what a JERK

[infernalhammer]

Your assuming that the rich are hard workers and that lower and middle income earners are lazy?

[kemronirons]

It usually works that way, unfortunately. When you read books by successful people, you will mostly see how they got from a scratch to owning what they'd dreamed about. Average people look on the final result but not the process. that's the problem. They want to have everything but can't force themselves to work hard and study enough to find the way how to get what they want. Cowards blame others, it will always be like that.

[jaymoore299]

He started from scratch and became filthy rich all while destroying the economy. You're really impressed by this?

[TheDukeljk]

@jaymoore299 He didn't destroy the economy you dumb fuck, are you black?

[jaymoore299]

@TheDukeljk How is that relevant?

[gwangjuboy1]

@TheDukeljk You need to read. This man, single handedly almost, destroyed the economy. He argued for two decades that government had no business regulating lending. He told us that self interest would be sufficient. Well, surprise surprise that didn't work very well. The private investment bankers, we discover, were encouraging retail banks to lend as much as they could. The more risky mortgage-backed securities they could issue the higher their bonuses. The long term plan? There wasn't one.

[wyclef675]

"You cannot have the benefits of capitalist growth without the support of scignifigant portion of people. And if you have the sense that the rewards are being distributed unjustly, the rewards will not stand."

[floridacoder]

So his strategy on income inequality is to subsidize skilled workers with cheap foreign workers to drive down their salaries.

So instead of bringing up salaries of the poor through education and other means, he wants to meddle with the middle class.

People believe in capitalism and competition. What they don't believe in is leaders who allow our global competitors to kick our asses in the global market. This sound ass kicking is manifested in the form of trade deficits.

[texanhoustonguy]

"Primary and secondary education" was his big concern folks. Couldn't have said it better myself. The US is now a service (aka 'knowledge') economy and the kids here are not as prepared as their future competitors overseas. We can't import our talent forever.