Joseph Stiglitz: "The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers our Future"

DemocracyNow.org - Several months before Occupy Wall Street, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote, "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%," an article for Vanity Fair. He returns to the subject in his new book looking at how inequality is now greater in the United States than any other industrialized nation. He notes, that the six heirs of the Wal-Mart fortune command wealth equivalent to the entire bottom 30 percent of American society. "It's a comment both on how well off the top are and how poor the bottom are," Stiglitz says. "It's really emblematic of the divide that has gotten much worse in our society." On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that pay for the top CEOs on Wall Street increased by more than 20 percent last year. Meanwhile, census data shows nearly one in two Americans, or 150 million people, have fallen into poverty or could be classified as low-income. "The United States is the country in the world with the highest level of inequality [of the advanced industrial countries] and it's getting worse," Stiglitz says. "What's even more disturbing is we've [also] become the country with the least equality of opportunity."

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  News & Politics

[Christian Lewis]

whats lacking in the world is compassion. that will solve everything. theres enough resources in the world for everyone to live comfortably yet we screw each other big time for meaningless percentages that dont make a dent in you comfortability in living in the long run

[nulledges]

What enabled the multi-bil$ bonuses? How does more resources to DC fix our situation? or will it again be wasted on wars, insider handouts, destruction, misinformation, - leaving a $16tril+ debt= $50k per citizen. Why don’t children ‘educated’ in gov schools know how to grow food & build houses for themselves & succeed in this world? Why would anyone trust the same ppl who lie/fail to suddenly be angels with the solution? Don’t give your money=time=life to those who work against your interests!

[wariswrong1]

REVOLUTION

[PowerfulMindsofWomen]

Finally, someone very clearly tells the truth about the state of America. The current state of America is the direct result of hyper individualism. When you only care about your welfare, your upward mobility, and no one else's, nobody wins.

[tiredofwelfare]

I have the perfect solution....why don't the 1% and all the liberals pay for all the welfare for the losers that refuse to work. They can also bail the US economy out. Let those of us that work for a living keep more of our hard earned money. I am sick of people worrying about the "poor." You are not poor if you can wear $200 sneakers! You make more on handouts than I do working full time!

[tigerone1970]

To correct Joseph Stiglitz - shareholders do have a say in corporate compensation, if they buy enough bonds or shares to have a representative on the board of directors, especially the chairman of the board of directors.

Again, there is a concentration of power, including among shareholders. Howevever, we should start paying very close attention to who the shareholders are, especially if shares are owned by only a few people.

[The Best]

It is indeed striking how people of such high public standing, infer from such crude statistic such poor data and presume to present it as empirical.

[dinobluto]

Free market economics does not exist in the US. What does however is a an oligarchy of capital owners.

They want to strip away at citizens rights and turn society into a jungle with a survivalist mentality

The rich parasites dont care about people because psychopathic greed got them where they are

Cut the 10's billions of handouts in the form of tax concessions and subsidies to the mass capital owners

PEOPLE TAKE THE POWER BACK

[tunde6669]

The likes of Nicolas Tesla had been erased from history while the name of likes of JP Morgan...are the names given recognition and you do not dear step on their path, they (JP Morgan of this World) will destroy your career or even kill you. Not until when the right people are given what they deserve for contributing to humanity as against how much profit they make by exploiting humanity, America will not move forward.

[Christian Lewis]

1st rule:There are no rules to life.

[DannyBling]

Yeah ok... that's going to work. Free housing and free food. Then it'll become free healthcare. Then it's free college. Then it's a free TV. First rule of economics: there's no such thing as a free lunch. Second rule of economics: life is all about tradeoffs. Somebody is paying for it. Do you ultimately reward the productive or unproductive?