Understanding Wealth Inequality

We've talked about public goods and externalities, and one negative externality associated with economic decisions is wealth inequality. A certain measure of wealth inequality is expected and desirable for any economy. But when this becomes extreme, as it is in the United States and many other countries today, it can be an enormous problem. Let's talk about how this arises, its effects, and how we measure it quantitatively.

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[RT.]

Awareness always precedes intentional change. Education is the key; thank you so much for your work Professor Dave

[MartotheMartian]

I wonder how many geniuses throughout history were never able to achieve due to being poor and just trying to survive their entire lives🤔

[thegreatshamalamadingdong]

Amazes me that Rome collapsed with a Genie coefficient of 5. Where as today it’s about 15 and we are still putting up with it.
Amazon just got a tax rebate from US gov yet people can’t afford to keep the lights on or eat. It’s disturbing and disgusting

[angelenriquechavezponce]

Thanks for the explanation Dave, I think you nailed it, it's not unexpected to have wealth inequality. The problem is that most of the folks struggle to stay afloat, while the top of the top overperforms the pib of entire country's, as it sounds 1 country working for 1 entire year had less money than this individuals made in maybe a decade or two. There's something that isn't working for all us.

[itchyPoncho]

Keep up the good work Dave and thank you for the videos on all the different subjects you cover! Truly a blessing to have access to the info you provide !

[chiepah]

I'm glad you mentioned that there is a certain amount of inequality that is expected and necessary, many seem to either ignore or dismiss that.

[GeoandHistoryExplained]

Great video! Economics is not an easy topic to explain.

[gloriapavia]

Hi prof Dave! I'd like to thank you for your clear explanation of the most difficult topics. Me and my class in Italy follow your lessons and we appreciate you!!

[kevincorrigan]

I love that u do stuff outside of science, im a bio student in college but love watching these history and economic stuff.

[fuglong]

Professor Dave is smart, a great teacher, AND

[wittywarbler]

Well put together video overall, however I do think it's missing a key aspect in analyzing extreme wealth disparity. This of course is solutions to it, and I think that a certain 18th century French invention may be an interesting option to consider.

[Acid]

You can't just drop that wealth concentration is natural consequence of free market and go ahead with current situation where most wealth concentration is created by central banks, regulations and so non-free market factors that benefits those who is already wealthy.

[PhilfreezeCH]

1:38 Personally when I hear „wealth inequality is necessary in a market economy“ the thing I take away from it is that market economies might not be our best option when it has inherent problems of this magnitude.

Also I personally think it is fascinating that high wealth inequality makes everyone, even the richest people, unhappy on average.

[dariasA]

Dave, I suggest you to read "the Dawn of Everything" by the late David Graeber and David Wengrow. The book it's an anthropological analysis about the origins of inequality and how we got stucked in this particular form of social organization.

[giovanniroma]

Che bella la reintroduzione in versione scientifica della coscienza di classe. ❤️

[wbdill]

Does anybody know the source for the pie chart at 1:20 (also the thumbnail)?

[pandit-jee-bihar]

Economic system that we have in place is faulty in a way that it will always create concentration of wealth.

What supplements this faulty system are our life style choices and government policies.

It's runs in vicious cycle and calling it rigged would be an understatement.

While we may think that today there are more jobs and people have more money but the reality is that there's a constant inflation which nullifies everything.

It is much harder to remain middle class today than it was a few decades ago with the same education and income.

We always stress on having checks and balances when it comes to government but we never talk about checks and balances with respect to concentration of wealth.

[danielchan]

Note the use of animation in this video. Professor Dave (perhaps his editor?) should be getting more attention. His videos just get better over time.

[totalnubepogrammer]

If possible, would Professor Dave mind to weigh in on this?

Interesting fact: 65% of all occupations require higher education/degree of some kind.
Harsh facts: Less than half (50%) of all citizens in the United States have a bachelors degree or higher
Less than half (50%) of all citizens in the United Kingdom have a degree of any kind
Less than half (50%) of Australian citizens have a bachelors degree or higher
France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland all share these traits of less than half of their respective populations having a college/ university degree of any kind, and having record high numbers of degree recipients.
For most of these countries, the degrees awarded are usually not STEM degrees of any kind. A large percentage of the STEM degrees awarded are in the medical field. There is also a large portion of STEM degree recipients who move on to management or law in their field, further increasing the deficit of skilled workers. Naturally, there is also a number of degree recipients in general who will go on to teach others. Occupations that require a high level of mathematics such as programmers, engineers, doctors, pharmacists, physicists and commercial pilots for example, are all in high demand.
My questions to Professor Dave and anyone else who would like to discuss: Would you agree that extreme income inequality in its broadest sense, could be driven in part by a lack of education in these important fields? Also, should America take action to increase the number of STEM degree recipients as a response to the student loan crisis?

[markjohnson]

Wow, I didn't know you were an expert in literally everything.. lol