Worsening Economic Inequality Yields Worsening Social Conditions

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

Democracy at Work

Coops, Economics, Economy, Workercooperative, Capitalism, Politics, News, Government

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

On this week’s Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff discusses Kate Pickett's and Richard Wilkinson's best-selling study in the book "The Spirit Level" (2009), showing how economic inequality correlates with most of the major social problems of our time.

We will juxtapose their latest paper "The Spirit Level at 15: The Enduring Impact of Inequality" Which details how economic inequality has only gotten worse since the past fifteen years, despite government laws and programs aimed to "reduce" inequality.

Wilkinson and Pickett show how inequality leads to severe social ills, divisions, and disintegration. What we need is to face that it is capitalism that generates the inequality that generates the hostilities and social tensions intruding upon and damaging our lives."

Important reading "The Spirit Level at 15: The Enduring Impact of Inequality:
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/215026/1/The_Spirit_Level_at_15_2024_FINAL.pdf

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Welcome friends to another edition of Economic Update, a weekly program devoted to the economic
0:26.5	dimensions of our lives and those of our children. I'm your host Richard Wolf.
0:33.0	As usual, I want to remind you to send in to Charlie Fabian, any suggestions or comments
0:40.5	that you might have that will help us design future programs.
0:44.8	His email address is, as I have repeatedly told you,
0:48.8	Charlie. info438 at gmail.com. I also want to remind you of our new book
0:56.9	Understanding Capitalism. I wrote it as the third of a series of books requested by you.
1:06.0	The first one was understanding Marxism.
1:09.0	The second was understanding socialism.
1:12.4	And this one, a kind of culmination is called understanding capitalism.
1:18.0	It's available now.
1:20.0	You can find out much more about it by going to our website, Democracy at Work.
1:25.8	info slash books, which will give you all the details you might be interested in.
1:32.4	I think you'll find it an accessible kind of book to
1:37.4	help sort out the role, the dominant role that capitalism plays in your life and in mind.
1:45.9	That's why the book was written.
1:50.2	In today's program we're going to depart from our usual pattern and devote the entire program
1:56.3	both halves to a remarkable research project that is now over 20 years old, but it has very, very important message for us,
2:10.3	and it is a project I want you to know about if you did not already become aware of it.
2:18.0	So here it is.
2:20.0	It begins for most of the world in the publication of a book back in 2009.
2:29.0	And the book had an unusual title, The Spirit Level, The Spirit Level. The Spirit Level. The
	...

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