Why Should I Care? | Lecture 1 | Inequality 101 with Branko Milanovic & Arjun Jayadev 

Don't you mean "...such inequality content..."? ;-)

Thats kind of the point, I believe

Too bad because it really is a class issue. But class is linked to Marx, who still carries a stink (even though he was correct in much of his thinking)

I think the distinction is that “working population” includes high-end workers such as CEOs, celebrities, etc. who are not what we think of as “working class”

Just like in Mumbai, on one side you have villas and on the opposite you see slums.

Buddy did you pay attention to the part where he talks about crystalization of wealth. It implies that it works on generational levels.

If you take away the birthright of your children why would kill yourself working

Same question from a labour, why should labour die working if all his own produced wealth is going to serve the children of Bill Gates instead of the children of his/her own?​@@JoseFerreira-ms9xi

you shouldn’t have to kill yourself working

Revolutions. Rebellions. etc.

mvondoom governments are supposed to regulate and steer self interests - if they didn't we'd be living in anarcho-capitalism. The question is how much government should reward selfishness and how much it should redistribute - and right now the world seems to be only rewarding selfishness

Maybe at some historical or metaphysical root, sure. That's not the point. The point is that "the whole structure" _exists_ , and getting steadily worse and more deadly across the planet.

it definitely exists. my point was made because i think there is a tension between saying the individual's choices create the beast, or that there is a superstructure that can be changed (like if we embrace socialism, or something like that). I personally locate the problem with the individual.

but you're definitely right, because what/if we choose to do anything about it, it's going to have to be addressed at many levels. I think structural change and individual change are both obviously called for, we can't naively think it's any different

if people stay selfish, i don't think much can be changed at the other levels

Indeed

Yeah. Obviously the solution lies on tidying your room. No sarcasm intended at all.

INET ist like the twin of PragerU from the mirror universe.

incredibly shifty analysis that completely ignores self worth and agency

Ok, race realist...

Speaking of unfairness income inequality is way bigger than natural inequality between people.

It's about equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. No one's advocating for equality of outcome. The level of Inequality that exists prevents any semblance of equality of opportunity to exist for most people.

Whats wrong is that our society is so horrible its making you question such a good act. Your heart was 100% in the right place.

"Give a man a fish, teach a man to fish".... instead of sharing your wealth or nicer home, perhaps sharing your knowledge... like mentoring .. or brainstorming with them on how they might improve their own income potential , housing and educational experience.. 😏therebyy hopefully beginning a reaction that is not only sustainable, but would be shared and spread outside the broken system that exists.. BE THE CHANGE.. just a thought

@@janellegard2581 Thats just a fancy way of saying "go get a job, bum!"

Roth Tiberius Cain Inequality always exists, with or without capitalism.

Hey man, I wanna ask you if this channel is a good source for economic discussions or even good economic solutions or is it just another capitalist funded think tank which promotes all that neo liberal BS of free market and all that? I'm asking cause i just found out about this channel and this is the first video I'm watching.

@@shalomsaldanha1267 I don't know about the channel my man. Our professor recommended us this video series as supplementary, all I can say is at least this series are legit.

@@shalomsaldanha1267 As a neoliberal free market supporter, this channel is the very opposite, I can assure you. One of its videos is lazily titled "Tax the rich".

Hey man, I wanna ask you if this channel is a good source for economic discussions or even good economic solutions or is it just another capitalist funded think tank which promotes all that neo liberal BS of free market and all that? I'm asking cause i just found out about this channel and this is the first video I'm watching.

@@shalomsaldanha1267 Learn from Richard Wolff. He’s much better.

Actually the worlds wealth is entirely finite. We may claim the wealth of the world has grown, but this is incorrect. Wealth represents percieved value, not actual value. Your gold yacht is worthless if it can't be traded for food and you are starving. If the worlds actual resource value is finite, and we divide control of these resources unequally, then those without MUST take from those who have in some fashion in order to grow. Conversely those with a high percentage of control over resources MUST keep those beneath them (or above) from taking their share back down to a more equivalent level. Thats why you cannot ignore the wealthy in seeking to improve inequality. Its the presence of the rich that creates the poor.

@@benjaminhenderson7059 But wealth does represent actual value, you could not make the case that objectively we are not better of from 200 years ago. In terms of many measurable things like life expectancy etc we are much better of. This is the consequence of humanity coming up with new stuff like cars and airplanes and healthcare methods, clearly this is not fixed wealth, but wealth is being created here. If we would take your premise that the wealth of the world did not grow then you could not advance above a primitive hunter gatherer society where you just extend your arm to eat an apple off of a tree, even there as soon as somebody would figure anything out like how to create a sharp stick to hunt animals with, the wealth of the world would have increased. It increases by human beings inventing and creating new stuff. You would not have bought the device, that you are writing this message with if it was not worth more to you than what it cost you. Apple / Samsung / microsoft did not take anything from you by offering you an opportunity to buy that device.

lol, is this a real person?

@@Are1i All of the basic building blocks of the universe are the same, yet they combine into nearly infinite complexity. It doesn't increase what there already was, its just a better utilization than we already had. When we discovered crop rotation there wasn't suddenly more tilled land created, we just made the land we already had more useful. This phone, as you point out, I bought. But while you say it was an equal exchange, I have to consider what is the cost of not having one? Can you get a decent job without a cellphone? Clothes are a similar example. I can wear a burlap sack, it has the same function as the clothes, and is vastly less expensive in terms of upfront cost, but the truth is it would cost me more to wear it than I would save. There is no such thing as an equal exchange. Everything has hidden costs, and they invariably play to the hands of the one with greater power. You say a sharpened stick created new wealth. Its a good example. It gives the stick weilder more power than his peers because he created a tool right? But this hunter gatherer lives in a community. He was taken care of as a child by his village. Kept safe by the other tribemembers. He had the chance to consider sharpening the stick because of those around him. So should he really get 100% credit and suddenly tell all the others to go figure out how to sharpen their own sticks? Pull themselves up by their bootstraps like he did? Society creates wealth through perception, and without society wealth is useless. Right now only about 10% of the world actually gets to participate in society. The rest of us have been denied choice by those in control setting up a system rigged in their favor. All the benefits of wealth you and the other wealthy people in this world enjoy are derived entirely from the fruits of society as a whole, and no one part stands alone. All the wealth in a bank is useless if society doesnt punish bank robbers. All the medicine in a hospitol is useless if you are denied its aid. Two very comparable scenarios, yet one happens every day. That's inequality.

@@benjaminhenderson7059 It is the presence of earth which creates gravity, The rich has money and nothing else the value got traded for some good, the person has goods and services and rich has money, Only trade happened, the money gained from trade is equal to the value provided, I provided 10 worth of apple, so value exchanged hands equally. I am rich by apples and the person is rich by money. Even if those who have resources and those who don't will have something in return for each others goods. Suppose if a country has all the resources except one, then they will trade with other country to get what they don't have, same is with other nations, and A nation will only grow to a level of it's carrying capacity.