Translated material
Joseph Stiglitz: "Bezos, Gates and Buffett are more than half of the US population"
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Joseph Styglitsa is always happy in Russia. State television channels or, say, Rossiyskaya Gazeta never miss the opportunity to interview an American economist when he comes to Moscow or St. Petersburg at the next invitation. Why? Because they are more or less represented what to expect from the eminent speaker: reasoning about the multipolarity of the world, criticism of the Western establishment. And also - a talk about inequality, the scale of which Stiglitz considers the problem of his country an exceptional value.
This topic is devoted to the previous book of the author, translated into Russian - “The Great Separation. Inequality in society, or what to do 99%to the remaining? ” Like the last work of the Nobel laureate - “people, power and profit. Progressive capitalism in the era of mass discontent ” (enters the Alpine Plisher). In it, Stiglitz, without changing himself, continues the crusade against market fundamentalism leading to the wealth of the elect.
Both books are very close in terms of intention and a set of arguments. And in some places they merge into a defiant sermon on the ulcers of neoliberalism:
“It is impossible to talk about the equality of opportunities in a world where an average resident of Africa receives several hundred dollars for investment in their human capital, and at the same moment the children of wealthy Americans - half a million dollars as a gift from parents and society” ( “Great Separation” )
“Many in the upper part of society - including the Walton family (the heir to the creator of the state of Walmart) and the Koch brothers - came to success not as a result of hard work, but, at least partially, having received a major inheritance” ( “People, Power and Profit” ).
“The American dream is a belief that you can earn a good life with hard work - with death. Inequality suppresses economic growth. When even The Economist, a magazine that frankly supporting the idea of free markets, says in its special issue that the scale and nature of inequality is a serious problem for America, it becomes clear that our economy has monstrous problems ”( “ Great Separation ” ).
“A visual indicator of the success of society in creating good jobs and healthy workforce is the share of the population of working age, which is part of the labor force and works. But the Americans die earlier and have weaker health than the inhabitants of Europe and other places. Mortality is explained, at least in part, by the fact that our economy is not able to create good jobs with a decent salary, the fact that people dropped their hands and their despair gives rise to social diseases like alcoholism and dependence on drugs ”( “ people, power and profit ” ).
Nevertheless, books written in 2015 and 2019 have an important difference. With the presidency of Donald Trump, everything became worse, much worse, Stiglitz is sure: “The generation of immoral leaders is taking up against the ideal of truth, the world and the country are faced with a threat of much more serious disintegration - one in which it will be impossible to speak even with peaceful calls to the action that sounded in this book.” In a word, in order to enjoy the serenity of Putin's stability, read the Harvard rebel Joseph Stilitz. He will not let him down.
The fact that things in the USA and in many other developed states are not very well said. There is almost harsh discontent in the country.
This should not be, according to the American economic and political science, the last quarter of the century. After the fall of the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989, Francis Fukuyama announced the “end of history”, since democracy and capitalism won a complete victory. It seemed that a new era of global prosperity was coming with a faster growth of more than ever, and America was supposed to lead it.
However, by 2018, these highly soaring ideas seem to have finally crashed about mundane reality. The financial crisis of 2008 showed that capitalism was not at all what was supposed - it was neither effective nor stability. Then there was a lot of statistics that say that from growth in the last quarter century was mainly won by those who were at the very top. And, finally, the protest voting on both sides of the Atlantic - Brexit in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the United States - sicked doubts about the sanity of the democratic electorate.
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