Is Inequality About to Get Unimaginably Worse? - The Inquiry from BBC

[mskmoorthy]

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BBC inquiry interviews Harari the author of sapiens

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p050kvnz#play

Is Inequality About to Get Unimaginably Worse?

The Inquiry

Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, explores the
long history of inequality – from the Stone Age onwards – and asks
whether we are on the brink of creating a huge “economically useless”
underclass, unable to keep up with enhanced humans, the owners of
increasingly valuable data and, eventually, artificial intelligence.

 

[prasad1]

In a candid conversation with Frank Rich last fall, Chris Rock said, "Oh, people don’t even know. If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets." The findings of three studies, published over the last several years in Perspectives on Psychological Science, suggest that Rock is right. We have no idea how unequal our society has become.

In a study published last year, Norton and Sorapop Kiatpongsan used a similar approach to assess perceptions of income inequality. They asked about 55,000 people from 40 countries to estimate how much corporate CEOs and unskilled workers earned. Then they asked people how much CEOs and workers should earn. The median American estimated that the CEO-to-worker pay-ratio was 30-to-1, and that ideally, it’d be 7-to-1. The reality? 354-to-1. Fifty years ago, it was 20-to-1. Again, the patterns were the same for all subgroups, regardless of age, education, political affiliation, or opinion on inequality and pay. “In sum,” the researchers concluded, “respondents underestimate actual pay gaps, and their ideal pay gaps are even further from reality than those underestimates.”

According to Pew Research, most Americans believe the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy, but 60% believe that most people can make it if they’re willing to work hard. Senator Marco Rubio says that America has “never been a nation of haves and have-nots. We are a nation of haves and soon-to-haves, of people who have made it and people who will make it.” Sure, we love a good rags-to-riches story, but perhaps we tolerate such inequality because we think these stories happen more than they actually do.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/economic-inequality-it-s-far-worse-than-you-think/

 

[prasad1]

It’s familiar news by now. Oxfam’s figures have gone viral: the richest 1% now have more wealth than the rest of the world’s population combined. Global inequality is worse than at any time since the 19th century.
For most people, this is all they know about global inequality. But Oxfam’s wealth figures don’t quite tell the whole story. What about income inequality? And – more importantly – what about inequalities between countries? If we expand our view beyond the usual metrics, we can learn a lot more about how unequal our world has become.

The first thing to say about Oxfam’s numbers is that they present a very conservative picture. Given that the rich hide so much of their wealth in tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, it is impossible to know how much they really have. Recent estimates suggest that up to $32tn is stored away in tax havens – around one sixth of the world’s total private wealth. If we were to add that to Oxfam’s metrics, inequality would look much, much worse.


That is wealth inequality, not income inequality.



Over the past few decades inequality has become so bad that, in 2000, Americans were nine times richer than Latin Americans, 72 times richer than sub-Saharan Africans, and a mind-popping 80 times richer than south Asians. These numbers give us a sense for how unfairly the global economy distributes our planet’s wealth.

It doesn’t matter how you slice it; global inequality is getting worse. Much worse. Convergence theory turned out to be wildly incorrect. Inequality doesn’t disappear automatically; it all depends on the balance of political power in the global economy. As long as a few rich countries have the power to set the rules to their own advantage, inequality will continue to worsen. The debt system, structural adjustment, free trade agreements, tax evasion, and power asymmetries in the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO are all major reasons that inequality is getting worse instead of better.
It’s time we face up to the imbalances that distort our global economy. There’s nothing natural about extreme inequality. It is man-made. It has to do with power. And we need to have the courage to say so.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-...al-inequality-may-be-much-worse-than-we-think

 

[krish44]

Every time I read the data about inequality in earnings and wealth, I have a feeling that I have been a fool living in a developing [read poor] country counting my small

coins and feeling rich.

My next generation realised what was happening and moved on to better countries to enjoy a better life and become relatively rich.US and europe are countries with

oppurtunities . We are those left behind in this money making game.

 

[Rudhran]

Every time I read the data about inequality in earnings and wealth, I have a feeling that I have been a fool living in a developing [read poor] country counting my small

coins and feeling rich.

My next generation realised what was happening and moved on to better countries to enjoy a better life and become relatively rich.US and europe are countries with

oppurtunities . We are those left behind in this money making game.

Who prevented you....?

Everyday Passports are issued to Indians... number of people are getting migrated....

Some don't find time to appreciate good things

But do have enough time to grumble and lament in this Forum

Perhaps there may be few who believe that the grass on the other side of the fence is alwasy green...

When I purchased this Book 'Sapiens' in December 2016, it was reported that 65,000 people have signed up Harari's online course, A Brief History of Humankind. 'Sapiens'.

It is an international best seller and is pubished in more than 30 langauges wrldwide.

In 2012, Harai was awarded the annual Polonsky prize for creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Discipline.

The first page projects an image of a 'A human handprint made about 30,000 year4s ago, on the wall of the Chauvert-Pont-d'Arc Cave insouthern FRance. Somebody tried to say, I was here'.

It is one of the year's most talked about book.

mskmoorthy Ji thanks for sharing this.

 

[krish44]

Of course many here love being paupers and live on handouts by the govt.

They give their votes in return.

More than 50% indians are living on some handout or other.

They spend their lives reading about human history and consoling themselves.

The next generation saw what was happening to them and are fleeing the country for countries where there is life to be made, oppurtunities with freedom exist, There

is a liberal lifestyle.Most look for a freer society where each can achieve his full potential and more happiness. Denial never gives a human anything. Fulfilling desires is the goal of all.

 

[Rudhran]

Of course many here love being paupers and live on handouts by the govt.

They give their votes in return.

More than 50% indians are living on some handout or other.

They spend their lives reading about human history and consoling themselves.

The next generation saw what was happening to them and are fleeing the country for countries where there is life to be made, oppurtunities with freedom exist, There

is a liberal lifestyle.Most look for a freer society where each can achieve his full potential and more happiness. Denial never gives a human anything. Fulfilling desires is the goal of all.

People who desire don't get all that they wish

And people who deny seems to get most which they don't wish.

When you show interest, you wont get it

When one withdrew/detach interest, it may come by any means.

And there is limit for expecting handouts from the Government..

Though AK of AAP was very liberal in offering subsidies like Free water, Electricity, etc etc Delhi people seems to have expected more and rejected him

I think AK is responsible for all this.... He seems to have digged his own grave...

They are people who opine that he should not have offered anything from tax payers money and allowed the Delhi voters to suffer with pollution, carbage and other issues.

 

[auh]

Has it not always been the case? Only that people are writing books and talking about it.

 

[mskmoorthy]

The author's thesis is that it(the inequality) is going to be a lot worse (or the gap is going to be large). If you get a chance listen to the interview in BBC

 

[tks]

The author's thesis is that it(the inequality) is going to be a lot worse (or the gap is going to be large). If you get a chance listen to the interview in BBC

Excellent reference (BBC interview), thought provoking - Thanks , Sri Moorthy

This thread could belong in general discussions.

While the author's thesis is valid about inequality gap becoming worse due to technologies, his conclusion in some areas are unfounded due to not having the right paradigm about human consciousness.

In the near term, with robotics replacing workers, expert systems and AI algorithms creating and delivering new services primarily for the advantaged, the world is going to be evolving into a nightmarish situation.


m

The main fear is really human greed and human capacity to subdue those that are disadvantaged. We have had slavery (still continues to have sex-slavery and other modern forms of slavery in the world), continue to subjugate animals and other beings to untold cruelty and continue total destruction of the environment.

But machines taking over conscious beings is a western worry arising out of a wrong understanding of the truth of existence. However humans controlling other beings for enormous selfish reasons using technologies is completely possible.

Creation of useless society is completely possible.

The world is not ready for the changes that are taking place at a breakneck speed.