The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them
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4.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In the face of rising inequality in America, Joseph E. Stiglitz charts a path toward real recovery and a more equal society.
A singular voice of reason in an era defined by bitter politics and economic uncertainty, Joseph E. Stiglitz has time and again diagnosed America’s greatest economic challenges, from the Great Recession and its feeble recovery to the yawning gap between the rich and the poor. The Great Divide gathers his most provocative reflections to date on the subject of inequality. As Stiglitz ably argues, a healthy economy and a fairer democracy are within our grasp if we can put aside misguided interests and ideologies and abandon failed policies. Opening with the essay that gave the Occupy Movement its slogan, “We are the 99%,” later essays in The Great Divide reveal equality of opportunity as a national myth, show that today’s outsized inequality is a matter of choice, and explain reforms that would spur higher growth, more opportunity, and greater equality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nobel Prize winning economist Stiglitz's collection of recent essays is a fine, if at times repetitive, look at the steady increase in income inequality throughout the world over the past several years. Stiglitz (The Price of Inequality) contends that a number of U.S. policies created in the last 30 years have contributed both to this phenomenon and to the Great Recession. He also argues that trickle-down economics and the "too big to fail" arguments of the financial industry have led the U.S. down a dangerous path that disrupts innovation, lowers life expectancy, and will cripple the country economically for the next few decades. He proposes any number of solutions that would reduce income inequality and the power of the wealthiest 1% but also seriously increase the scope of government. The essays are grouped thematically into different sections with titles like "Dimensions of Inequality" and "Policy." While many would work perfectly well as standalones, when grouped together they risk boring the reader with redundant background information. That said, with this book Stiglitz has succeeded in breaking down complex economic concepts into language that educated laypeople can understand, and readers will be fascinated by his ideas.
