If we wait until income inequality is much more severe, we will have a whole class of new superrich who will probably feel entitled to their wealth and will have the means to defend their interest. That's already gone far enough. We shouldn't let it become more extreme.
Interpretation
We must address income inequality before it worsens, or we risk creating a class of wealthy individuals who feel entitled and will protect their privileges.
Robert J. Shiller's quote highlights the urgent need to tackle income inequality before it escalates further. He warns that if allowed to grow, a new elite class may emerge, believing they inherently deserve their wealth, which could lead to society's division and instability. By acknowledging the problems associated with extreme wealth disparities now, we can work towards a more equitable future.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about economic policies advocating for wealth redistribution.
Those on the downside of rising economic inequality generally do not want government policies that look like handouts. They typically do not want the government to make the tax system more progressive, to impose punishing taxes on the rich, in order to give the money to them. Redistribution feels demeaning. It feels like being labeled a failure.
Speculative markets have always been vulnerable to illusion. But seeing the folly in markets provides no clear advantage in forecasting outcomes, because changes in the force of the illusion are difficult to predict.
That's the world we live in: when it comes to economics, people have emotions; it's not like chemistry or physics.
Money management has been a profession involving a lot of fakery - people saying they can beat the market, and they really can't.
We should not be focusing on quick solutions. The really important concern for policymakers everywhere is to prevent disasters - that is, the outlier events that matter the most.
I think that a lot of people in all walks of life have the impression, of course, that, 'I specialize in something. I can't - I don't have the time to read other things. I'll just go to pure entertainment when I'm relaxing, and then I'll come back to my pure specialty.' That produces - that attitude produces idiot savants, unfortunately.
Governments must commit to sound economic and financial policies. This is how we ensure reform in the euro area - and our independence.
No amount of debt restructuring, even debt forgiveness, will help the Greeks achieve real prosperity. What they need is not short-term relief but, rather, a long-term cure.
In the 1930s, unemployed working people could anticipate that their jobs would come back.
The great danger to the consumer is the monopoly -whether private or governmental. His most effective protection is free competition at home and free trade throughout the world. The consumer is protected from being exploited by one seller by the existence of another seller from whom he can buy and who is eager to sell to him. Alternative sources of supply protect the consumer far more effectively than all the Ralph Naders of the world.
Industry entirely left to itself, would soon fall to ruin, and a nation letting everything alone would commit suicide.
Bankruptcy exposes the economic vulnerability and insecurity of middle class women.
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