It turns out Americans have been asking the wrong question: It's not, “What’s the difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots,’” but rather…“How did those in the 0.1% end up having it all?”
To paraphrase my guest, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer (link “How do [rich people like me] manage to grab an ever-increasing piece of the pie? Is it because rich people are smarter than we were 30 years ago? Is it that we’re working harder than we once did? Are we taller? Better-looking? Sadly, no. It all comes down to one thing: economics.”
My thesis? Capitalism is the economic system that creates wealth, and good economic policy is what ensures that all that wealth doesn’t accrue to a very small group of people.
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Transcripts can be found at link
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Mentioned in the Episode
Nick Hanaeur's TED Talk "The Dirty Secret of Capitalism": link
Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson's The Winner-Take-All Economy: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class: link
Jared Bernstein & Karen Kornbluh's paper “Running Faster to Stay in Place: The Growth of Family Work Hours and Incomes": link
Reaganomics, FDR, & deregulation: link
"Reaganomics Killed America's Middle Class" from Salon: link
Marginal tax rates in 2022: link
CEO pay 300x the average worker: link
Reagan quotes via the Reagan Foundation: link
"The Myth of the Welfare Queen" from The New Republic: link
The Commodity Futures Modernization Act & the 2008 financial crisis: link
The 2000-2001 California electricity crisis: link
"Voodoo economics": link
US GDP & tax revenue in the 1980s: link
Wealth inequality & GDP growth from OECD: link
Federal debt under Reagan: link
Revolve's Gestalt University: link
RAND Corporation on wealth transfers: link
"The Prosperity Gospel, Explained" from Vox: link
"Amazon Denies Workers Pee in Bottles. Here Are the Pee Bottles" from Vice: link
Nick Hanauer in The New Republic, "Biden's Plan to Tax Rich People Like Me is the Best Way to Grow the Economy": link
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