Two young economists, Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty have done their research when it comes to the disparities between the poor, middle class and wealthy of the world. Perhaps unknown to the public at large, they have received top recognition from their peers in their field. According to this academic pair, the wealthy have been getting richer, while the poor, poorer, and something should be done to stop this trend.
Saez is a 39-year-old professor at the University of California at Berkeley, and has been awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, a prize that holds second place in honor only to the Nobel. Piketty is 40, and teaches at the Paris School of Economics, and won the Le Monde prize for best young economist, as well as other recognition of his talents and contributions.
Although both admire much of what the United States stands for, the economic situation of most people in America surprises and disappoints them.
“The United States is getting accustomed to a completely crazy level of inequality,” Mr. Piketty said, with a degree of wonder. “People say that reducing inequality is radical. I think that tolerating the level of inequality the United States tolerates is radical.”
One of the main ways they see to right this inequality is through higher tax rates for the wealthy.
“In a way, the United States is becoming like Old Europe, which is very strange in historical perspective,” Mr. Piketty said. “The United States used to be very egalitarian, not just in spirit but in actuality.
Inequality of wealth and income used to be much larger in France. And very high taxes on the very rich — that was invented in the United States,” he said.
Mr. Saez added, “Absent drastic policy changes, I doubt that income inequality will decline on its own.”
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