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Review Of The Price Of Inequality By Joseph E. Stiglitz

1109 Words5 Pages

The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz is a brutal confrontation towards the way the United States is run, specifically the top one percent. It is a powerful analysis of inequality in America and what it means for our society, political system, and economy. Stiglitz argues that inequality is a continuos pattern that it is produced by the vast amount of political power that the wealthy people hold to control legislative and regulatory activity. Stiglitz also blames “rent-seeking”, which involves seeking to increase someone's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth, for being one of the leading reasons of inequality. He says that with the wealthy using their power to pay low taxes, shape monopolies, and obtain favorable treatment by the government it is not only causing inequality, but causing a divide between the the wealthy and the rest of the nation. He discusses how that with all these factors coming in to play, the end result is not only morally wrong but also hurts the productivity in the economy. A quote from the book essentially captures what Stiglitz is trying to promote, "The top 1 percent of Americans gained 93 percent of the additional income created in the country in 2010, as compared with 2009." The book does a fantastic job of laying out the facts. The Price of Inequality is basically divided into three …show more content…

So to summarize my understanding of the simplest way to describe the causes of inequality are; rent-seeking activity and the rise of The Predator State, then tax policy, macroeconomic policy, corporate governance and regulation, or lack thereof, decline in unionization, globalization, technological change, and finally, education. These are all due to the failure of government to regulate capitalism. And because of this we have a super wealthy upper

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