Nobelprijswinnaar Stiglitz: inkomensongelijkheid ontspoort

Joseph Stiglitz Sees Terrifying Future for America If We Don't Reverse Inequality
Door Lynn Parramore, Alternet, 24 juni 2012

What will life look like down the road if we don't reverse economic inequality? We must see through the myths of capitalism and build a mass movement if we are to save ourselves.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, one of America's most prescient voices, wrote an article for Vanity Fair several months before Occupy Wall Street was born. "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" called attention to the widening gap between rich and poor and its deadly impact on our society and its democratic institutions. In his newly released book, The Price of Inequality, Stiglitz returns to this theme of a divided society, delving into the origins and consequences of economic unfairness.

Stiglitz: '[...] the share of the top 1 percent has almost tripled since 1980. [and] we've wiped out 20 years of increases and wealth for the middle American.

[...] one of the mischaracterizations of those of us who want a more equal or fairer society, is that we're in favor of total equality, and that would mean that there would be no incentives. That's not the issue. The question is whether we could ameliorate some of the inequality - reduce some of the inequality by, for instance, curtailing monopoly power, curtailing predatory lending, curtailing abusive credit card practices, curtailing the abuses of CEO pay. All of those kinds of things, what I generically call "rent seeking," are things that distort and destroy our economy. 

[...]  part of the problem of low taxes at the top is that since so much of the income at the very top is a result of rent seeking, when we lower the taxes, we're effectively lowering the taxes on rent seeking, and we're encouraging rent-seeking activities. When we have special provisions for capital gains that allow speculations to be taxed at a lower rate than people who work for a living, we encourage speculation. So that if you look at the design bit of our tax structure, it does create incentives for doing the wrong thing.

[ ...] One aspect of it is the problem about student debt [...] compounded by the fact that we have this very high unemployment, and particularly high youth unemployment.

[...] if we go down the route that we're going, we're going to a world where people live in gated communities. We already have by far the largest fraction of our population locked up in prison. We will have an increasingly insecure society. Americans will be facing insecurity, of economic insecurity, healthcare insecurity, a sense of physical insecurity. We will be worrying politically about the role of extremism. Extremism on the right, extremism on the left. So that's the kind of picture that I can see as going down towards. I see so many other countries that have these divided societies going down this directions.

[But] there's lots that you can do [om een doemscenario te voorkomen; K]. In my book, I described this very comprehensive economic agenda.

Zie ook:

Timothy Noah: Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Middle Class Is Disappearing
Door Sarah Jaffe, Alternet, 1 augustus 2012

In his new book "The Great Divergence," Noah digs into the causes of America's rapidly increasing inequality. In this interview, he talks to AlterNet about what he found.

The price of inequality
Door Joseph Stiglitz, The Guardian, 5 juni 2012

Boek The Price of Inequality
Joseph Stiglitz, W. W. Norton & Company, 449 pagina's, juni 2012

Later toegevoegd:

Inequality Is a Choice
Door Joseph E. Stiglitz, The New York Times, 13 oktober 2013

Berkeley crisis reflects crippling inequality and the dangers of austerity
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon, 9 november 2013

Corporate Profits at All-Time High; Wages at All-Time Low: Can We Call it Class War Yet?
Door Sarah Jaffe, Alternet, 29 juni 2012

The middle class is being hollowed out; increasingly, there are the super-super-rich, and there are the rest of us.

Job Insecurity: It’s the Disease of the 21st Century – And It’s Killing Us
Door Lynn Parramore, Alternet, 1 juli 2012

A massive, Xanax-fueled public health crisis driven by chronic employment worry is headed our way.

Het verband tussen neoliberalisme en het aantal mensen met psychische problemen
Door Paul Verhaeghe, psycholoog en psychoanalyticus en hoogleraar aan de universiteit van Gent, 26 augustus 2012

Oxfam seeks 'new deal' on inequality from world leaders
BBC News, 19 januari 2013

The 100 richest people in the world earned enough last year to end extreme poverty suffered by the poorest on the planet four times over, Oxfam has said.

Verder m'n blognotities:
Belangrijkste oorzaken economische crisis
Amerika's obscene kloof tussen arm en rijk
Wanstaltige inkomensongelijkheid in VS fnuikt democratie
Rijkdom van de wereld valt toe aan elite
VS: schatrijken kopen de democratie op
VS: 26 grote bedrijven betaalden geen belasting
Bedrijven in de VS krijgen financieel ongelimiteerde greep op de democratie
VS is bananenrepubliek qua inkomensongelijkheid
Britse rijken nog nooit zo rijk
8 Schrille feiten over rijkdom en armoede in de VS
Foute inkomensverdeling is mede debet aan economische crisis  
Verhoog de belastingen voor bedrijven en welgestelden of geef de doodsteek aan de publieke zaak - de keuze is aan ons

En:

Groen bestuur: van markteconomie naar harmonie met de natuur
Vermarkting: de mens als slaaf van wortel en stok
'Wij zitten gevangen in onze jacht op rijkdom' 
'Meervoudige systeem-crisis biedt ook kansen'
Een mooi Amerika is mogelijk
Hunger Games vs. People Power

Tags: inkomensongelijkheid, inkomensverdeling, kloof tussen arm en rijk, lage en hoge inkomens, middeninkomens, belasting, inkomensbelasting, graaiers, top-inkomens, vermogensbelasting, levensverwachting, langer leven, korter leven, arme mensen, gezondheid, neoliberale bezuinigingen