Inequality: What Is It and Why Does It Matter? | Economics for People with Ha-Joon Chang

The fight for greater equality has been behind some of the most momentous moments in human history. But since the advent of neoliberalism in the 1980’s, there’s been a view by many economists that inequality is inevitable and any interventions against it are unadvisable. In this eighth lecture in INET’s “Economics For People” series, Ha-Joon Chang explains what inequality is, how we measure it, and why understanding it matters.

About “Economics for People”:

“It is extremely important for our democracy to function that ordinary citizens understand the key issues and basic theories of economics.” – Ha-Joon Chang

Economics has long been the domain of the ivory tower, where specialized language and opaque theorems make it inaccessible to most people. That’s a problem.

In the new series “Economics For People” from the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), University of Cambridge economist and bestselling author Ha-Joon Chang explains key concepts in economics, empowering anyone to hold their government, society, and economy accountable.

[trynewthings]

2:20 "When you think about it, this is a bit of a curious logic because it says that the rich need to be made richer in order to work harder, and the poor need to be made poorer in order to work harder." Just outstanding.

[lisagalley]

Excellent lecture. My main takeaway: Economic inequality is NOT inevitable, or something we all should just passively accept. There are many examples in the present day world of ways countries reduce inequality.This is the 3rd lecture by Prof Ha-Joon I’ve watched and I’m now a subscriber. All the programs on this channel that I’ve watched have been highly educational. I greatly appreciate him sharing his work with the world this way.

[texazwhyte]

Like your style of delivery mate, clear, relatively easy to follow, , and delivered with humanity. Best word I could come up with at this point. Cheers

[bundleofperceptions]

Excellent lecture. Henry Ford showed, in the beginning of the twentieth century, that if companies paid their workers higher wages, they would then have the means necessary to purchase the goods that companies made, and the profits of those companies rose dramatically. With neoliberal globalization, the corporations abandoned that way of thinking and reverted back to nineteenth century thinking where companies drove wages to the lowest levels possible, and that is what has caused a global economic crisis that the rulers cannot figure out how to solve, due to their ignorance and stupidity. Also, the inequality will never be reduced, because those at the top have convinced themselves that they are at the top because they are superior in intelligence and ability than those at the bottom, and the very last thing they will allow is for their children to compete on a level playing field with the children of those from the lower income levels, because if the children from the lower income levels out perform their children, their sense of superiority will be shown to be a fraud, and that must never be allowed, from their point of view, and they have the power to set the rules to insure the playing field is never made level. This is just an honest, unemotional view of the situation. The situation will never improve if people refuse to acknowledge the barriers that have been erected to prevent their success.

[kelvinkj]

Excellent lecture. Clear, direct, and unpretentious in terms of laying out the key ideas as well as showing what is inequality and why does it matter. Thank you for this channel to bring knowledge to the world.

[MichaelEBeard]

This explanation was very well done. Looking at it from these various angles[country to country][rich vs poor] refutes the theories that advocate this being natural.

[anitarose]

Really enjoyed this. 3rd time listening.

[mehdin]

22:28 “Why does Inequality Matter?” I was looking for this, so I assumed somebody else would be looking for this too.

[davidfaubion]

The fact Ha-Joon cited that a country's economic growth is directly pegged to the equality of it--is a game changer, or it should be.

[Acode]

I am new to economic thinking. I really like Dr. Chang's comparison of countries and his continuous breakdown of beliefs and reasons things are happenng the way they do.

[johndzwon]

Equality would mean that we either all live in mansions or garbage dumpsters, so maybe we should be focusing on a reduction in inequality instead.

And yes, I'm sure that exceedingly wealthy people would be very happy for things to remain as they are and can come up with numerous justifications why the current set-up is as immutable as the laws of physics, which includes a widening gap between the rich and poor, with the rich exploiting the poor for their personal benefit, thrown in for good measure.

[mdudube]

I need more of ur lectures. I m 60 but I feel like a grade 1 pupil. My mind needs more of this staff.

[woodspriteful]

The theory is that rich people are motivated to work when paid large sums of money while poor people are motivated to work when they never have enough money. Unpaid labor goes unrecognized and we ignore the masses of people who have given up and refused to participate or only participate enough to skate by.

[svrnclv]

Great lecture! Neoclassical economics is great for organizing economies, but not so great for organizing societies.

[dramese]

“Disapproval for claiming social ladder” that hit home, people have no idea how that feel, especially when you want to go to stem field

[rashikatasnim]

I lived in Norway for three years and I have seen how equal their economic system is. You do not need to be very educated to earn more. Almost everyone's salary starts from the same range. I meet one guy who is autistic and he doesn't look very abnormal when you see him except he is very slim, he gets 1700 UDS per month from the government, living in his own apartment. Even though I don't like the discriminated world but I still do think there should some differences, people should get paid based on their hard exceptional work. As everyone has the same living standard there, no one cares about anyone, and people are lonely, emotionally unavailable, less knowledge about the outer world. After coming from a developing country when I see that somehow I feel so unlucky that how much I have been gone through to reach some point and some people just born in a lucky world.

[scalpot]

Equality is impossible but i believe we can fix extreme poverty in this world.

[davidfaubion]

Brilliant. Please don't be shy about using the idea that the rich get richer and thus the poor get poorer, which Tom Pikitty likely found via the 1940s economist and Britain's minister of economy Nicholas Kaldor who wrote the idea within a more complex theory, Kaldor's theory of Circular and Cumulative Causation.

[feanariba]

There was no comment on correlation or causation between economic freedom and inequality. However, it is noted that those countries with greater economic freedom, are less unequal.

[gwentong]

Thankful for this channel as it brings knowledge for these times. Interesting happens in 2023 and into the future.✒️📚✒️😊😻🐕