Angus Deaton: How do we Solve the Problem of Inequality in America? (Bristol Ideas)

Sir Angus Deaton’s new book, Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality, brings together memoir with a lifetime of learning about economics, the United States and inequality. In a wide-raging discussion to mark the publication of Economics in America and the start of Festival of Economics, Deaton discusses with Bristol Ideas’ Andrew Kelly deaths of despair and what’s happening in the UK; the importance of higher education and college degrees; writing about economists; economists and climate change; inequality and health in the US; economic growth; trying to improve mobility and alleviate poverty; the role of cities; what the inflation reduction act has delivered; democracy and populism; and pre-distribution.
Since the interview, Anne Case and Angus Deaton have launched their research work on life expectancy and college education. In The New York Times they wrote: ‘What the economic statistics obscure in the averages is that there is not one but two Americas - and a clear line demarcating the division is educational attainment. Americans with four-year college degrees are flourishing economically, while those without are struggling….Worse still, as we discovered in new research, the America of those without college degrees has been scarred by death and staggeringly shorter life spans.’
Sir Angus Deaton is the Dwight D Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus and Senior Scholar at Princeton University. His books include The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality and The New York Times bestseller with Anne Case Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism - which created huge debate in the US, a meeting with President Obama, and films and television series. His latest book is Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality. In 2015, Sir Angus was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of consumption, poverty and welfare.
Presented by Bristol Ideas: www.bristolideas.co.uk/
Buy Angus Deaton's Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality now from Bookshop.org: uk.bookshop.org/a/11279/97806...

[@nthperson]

From a scholar born in Britain I would expect at least some reference to the inherited role Americans retained from life under British law that secured and protected landed privilege. From Turgot, Adam Smith captured the essence of how an immediate redistribution of wealth from producers to rentier interests was institutionalized. This systemic level of entrenched privilege has never been addressed. I have recently read the first two volumes of a trilogy written by Fred Harrison, director of the Land Research Trust in London, titled "#WeAreRent," in which he documents the history of the how this wealth confiscation occurred.

[@qedamawiessene5827]

must be a glitch in the channel as the comments aren't showing up