βWealth and Povertyβ Class 6: The Vicious Cycle of Wealth and Political Power
Friends,
This sixth week of our course brings us to one of the core problems of widening inequality β the inevitability that concentrated income and wealth at the top comes with political power.
Wealth isnβt a zero-sum game in which the rich get richer only if others become poorer, but political power is zero-sum. This creates a vicious cycle by which the super-rich get changes in laws and rules that define the market, which make them even richer and more powerful.
In case you missed them, here are the classes that have been released so far: Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4, and Class 5.
For Class 6, just double-click on the video below, and youβre in the sixth week of class.
The questions Iβll be addressing this week:
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How does economic power translate into political power?
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How does political power generate more economic power?
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How much of the phenomenon of widening inequality is due to this vicious cycle?
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Whatβs the difference between βpre-distributionβ and βredistributionβ of income and wealth?
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In what ways are income and wealth now pre-distributed upward?
Recommended readings (click on the link):
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Jane Mayer, βThe Big Money Behind the Big Lie,β The New Yorker, August 2, 2021
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Steven M. Teles, βThe Scourge of Upward Redistribution,β National Affairs, Fall 2015
For a full list of readings and the student handout for todayβs class, you can visit the course website here.
Please share!
A huge thanks to the Wealth and Poverty team β to Michael Lahanas-CalderΓ³n, Kyle Parker, Dan Davis, and Emmett Tjen β as well as Coro Fellows Ammar Ansari and Meagan Turner for preparing these course materials to be shared with all of you. And to Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse for making all this happen on this page.
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