Mastodawn

Riddick3001 Jul 17, 2023

Top economists call for action on runaway global inequality

Top economists call for action on runaway global inequality - Lemmy.world

The letter says: “We know that high inequality undermines all our social and environmental goals. It corrodes our politics, destroys trust, hamstrings our collective economic prosperity and weakens multilateralism. We also know that without a sharp reduction in inequality, the twin goals of ending poverty and preventing climate breakdown will be in clear conflict.”

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HousePanther Jul 18, 2023

Caveat Emptor: I have not read the article. I am immediately suspicious of most economists because, at least in the US, they have a decidedly conservative bias. Generally US-based economists side with the concerns of the wealthy and promote policies friendly to them which are often at the expense of the poor and working classes.

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sovietcreditcard Jul 18, 2023

Bingo. Pretty much any non-Marxist economists will favor “the market” over workers. Neoliberalism, the predominant ideology in most western countries, is seen as an alternative to conservatism (very much so in the US), but they’re centrists at best, and conservative-lite at worst.

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livus Jul 18, 2023

This is a case of "perfect is the enemy of good".

This thing was signed by a bunch of non-US economists like Thomas Picketty and people like Helen Clark, a left politician who used to run the UN Development Programme.

Economic neoliberal bias, sure, but what they are proposing is still an order of magnitude better than what we have now.

Thomas Piketty - Wikipedia

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sovietcreditcard Jul 18, 2023

Helen Clark is left LOL

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livus

Yeah I know, not by some standards, really depends on your Overton window.

She led a majority government on centre-left policies in New Zealand so that still meant she was in charge of a Monetarist economy with all the neoliberal economics that implies, but she also presided over a massive tax revenue transfer to working class families that is still going on today.