Hello again, friends. Thank you for joining me for the second week of my Wealth and Poverty class. In today’s class, we begin to explore why such inequalities have soared since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The questions we’ll focus on are:
— How did the market for financial capital contribute to inequalities of income and wealth?
— Did the accepted purpose of the American corporation change over the last 50 years, if so, when and how?
— More generally, for whom should the corporation exist?
— Is there such a thing as “corporate social responsibility?”
If you wish, I’ve shared some select readings from the syllabus for you. They’re available at: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/class-2-of-wealth-and-poverty
Class Outline
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00:00 - Recap of Week 1
09:29 - Introduction to Week 2
10:45 - Personal values
18:52 - Pay at the top: why has it risen so much?
32:54 - The capital market
57:26 - The Acme Widget Corporation and "Hacksaw Bob"
01:21:51 - What's happened to profits and wages overall?
01:25:09 - The purpose of the corporation