Will the 1% act on inequality before the riots start? | Jared Diamond | Big Think

Will the 1% act on inequality before the riots start?
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How bad is wealth inequality in the United States? About 1 percent of Americans hold 80 percent of the money.

In the United States, the correlation between the income of parents and the income of their children when they grow up is higher than in any other country in the world.

One of the big underlying reasons for poverty is receiving a crummy education, which in turn leads to crummy jobs. When people recognize their miserable long-term prospects, they are more likely to partake in riots.
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JARED DIAMOND:

Jared Diamond, a noted polymath, is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of the international best-selling books Guns, Germs, and Steel; Collapse; Why Is Sex Fun?; The World Until Yesterday; and The Third Chimpanzee, and is the presenter of TV documentary series based on three of those books.
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TRANSCRIPT:

JARED DIAMOND: Inequality is one of the big problems of the United States. But it's also a big problem of the world. To start with a problem for the United States, inequality with the United States, everybody knows by now the numbers the 1% or 0.1% of the people have 80% of the money in the United States. One might say if you're rich, you might say well, "Isn't that sad? But those poor people, they're poor because they're lazy and they're not trying hard and the American dream is rags to riches. They're poor because it's all their fault."

Well, the big reason that they are poor is because they are getting crummy educations, because American support for education has declined, because where you live is tied to the quality of the school where you're at. And if you get a crummy education, you're going to end up with a crummy job and you're going to end up poor. In the United States the correlation between the income of parents and the income of their children when they grow up is higher than in any other country in the world, meaning that if you want to be rich, if you are a child and you want to be rich, the best thing to do is to be born to rich parents. There's is a cruel joke which says if you are a baby, choose your parents carefully, because that's the best predictor of whether you end up rich or not.

You can say so what difference does it make for the rich people if there are all these unhappy unproductive poor people? Well, in my lifetime in Los Angeles, twice I've experienced riots in my city of Los Angeles, where the riots broke out in the center of the city where there were lots of poor people, miserable, recognizing that they didn't have any long term prospects. And they started rioting and they burning, they started burning. Sections like Beverly Hills that the rioters would spread out of the center of Los Angeles and start wrecking Beverly Hills. So what did the police do in Beverly Hills? The only thing they could do was to string up strips of this yellow plastic police tape across the main boulevards with signs that said rioters keep out.

Well, at the time of the last riots, the rioters, it happened, did not invade Beverly Hills. But you can bet there will be more if there's Inequality continuing in the United States, there'll be more riots. And the next time the rioters are going to invade Beverly Hills and they will be burning and doing other bad things there. And yellow strips of plastic police tape will not keep them out. So what does inequality mean for the United States? It's really bad for those Americans at the lower end of the spectrum, but it's going to be bad, and maybe fatally bad, for rich Americans.

[gitfiddlio]

Brings to mind JFK's observation that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable

[GeneralDowson]

When you have more than you need, build a bigger table not a higher fence.

[duchi]

*Guy:* I'm Rich
*Girl:* Cool! What's your name?
*Guy:* No, my name's Rich
*Girl:* Sorry, I'm not interested

[Koldatt]

HELL NO.
Look at our past, power never changed on its own, you gotta make it.

[hyperspaced]

I was asked once the following question:
"What is more difficult, for a person who has 0 dollars to make 1 million dollars, or a person who has 1 million dollars to make 10 million dollars". The answer I gave at the time was "it's equally difficult". Well, after seeing the inequality growing, I tend to believe the former is the answer.


This is clear sign the mechanisms of money redistribution are not working. With the economy globalization this task is more difficult.

[LANBobYonson]

"There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'Oppression!'
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw!"
-Rush

[tylerbradshaw]

I felt like he was giving a threat, not just a warning.

[Verrisin]

on thing: Those 1% are NOT employees. Your job does not matter. If you have a job, you will always be ~poor. This is something that will get more true, and more clear over time.
- In Capitalism, you need to have people work for you to be wealthy. It really is the only way.
(just talking about his point, about getting crappy jobs ; 0:57 )

[zahirmurji]

Very true, wish there were more like you to spread the word. When it does happen this time none of them will be left. Just like the fire was unstoppable.

[bmahoney]

It’s not the education, it’s the work ethic that’s the problem.

[bmahoney]

What the underclass needs to avoid the sort of frustration that can lead to violence isn’t money but rather opportunity. If you feel locked into your class you will become frustrated, if you have opportunity you don’t because your life is that of your choosing.

[kingdeedeedee]

Sure, blame it on education or whatever else you can use as an excuse. Entrepreneurs who dropped out of school:
Michael Dell, Dell founder, dropped out at 19
Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dropped out at 19
Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, dropped out at 19
Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, dropped out at 20
Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder, dropped out at 20
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, dropped out at 20
Larry Ellison, Oracle founder, dropped out at 20
Jan Koum, WhatsApp founder, dropped out at 21
Travis Kalanick, Uber founder, dropped out at 21
John Mackey, Whole Foods founder, dropped out at 22

[intricatic]

I frankly don't think it matters why people are poor. They shouldn't be.

[lukemiles]

OK, can a Economist explain why the minimum wage doesn’t enable one single person to own or rent a 1 bedroom apartment (anywhere in the world)?
Most people don’t want to be millionaires, but they want a small home, food, a means of transport (car/bus/train/...) and a small vacation.
As Banks demand that your mortgage doesn’t exceed 33% of your income, why isn’t the minimum wage calculated all over the world in this manner?
90% of our inhabitants would all be satisfied. This should be the main discussion around the world!
The UBI should be done like this!

[keithable]

I've worked my ass off, have a good education, and yet I'm still poor. It is all about being born into money or straight up good luck, right place right time. Hard work doesnt always equal success.

[atft]

Social inequality is a serious problem, but it can't be solved by telling lies about it. Jared Diamond said: "In the United States the correlation between the income of parents and the income of their children when they grow up is higher than in any other country in the world, " but that's not true. The UK and Italy have a higher level of social immobility, as well as some developing countries (China, Brazil, etc). While access to a better education is important, this factor alone can't explain the income inequality. So some other factors must be at play here, such as family connection or access to loans on favorable conditions. Also, we should not neglect social factors, for example, children learn how communicate with people of their parents circuits, which means children of rich parents find easier to connect with other rich people when they have a business proposition.

[averyantoniewski]

It makes sense that this guy is from L.A.

[DoomRulz]

They'll act on if it, if they want to. It has to come from them. No one can force them.

[corpsiecorpsie_the_original]

I love how he points out the failure of the government and its programs, then tries to pin the responsibility to enact a solution on a small amount of individuals.

[p.bamygdala]

I've cherished Jared Diamond's books over the years.

This video felt like merely the introduction to what would have been a fantastic presentation. Where's the rest of it?