November 16, 2022

Are Rich People Better Than You? Why Everything We Think We Know About Good Economics Might Be Backward, With Nick Hanauer

1 hour 23 minutes

It turns out Americans have been asking the wrong question: It's not, “What’s the difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots,’” but rather…“How did those in the 0.1% end up having it all?”

To paraphrase my guest, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer (https://nickhanauer.com/), “How do [rich people like me] manage to grab an ever-increasing piece of the pie? Is it because rich people are smarter than we were 30 years ago? Is it that we’re working harder than we once did? Are we taller? Better-looking? Sadly, no. It all comes down to one thing: economics.”

My thesis? Capitalism is the economic system that creates wealth, and good economic policy is what ensures that all that wealth doesn’t accrue to a very small group of people.

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Transcripts can be found at https://www.podpage.com/money-with-katie-show/.

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Mentioned in the Episode

Nick Hanaeur's TED Talk "The Dirty Secret of Capitalism": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th3KE_H27bs

Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson's The Winner-Take-All Economy: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class: https://politicalscience.yale.edu/publications/winner-take-all-politics-how-washington-made-rich-richer-and-turned-its-back-middle

Jared Bernstein & Karen Kornbluh's paper “Running Faster to Stay in Place: The Growth of Family Work Hours and Incomes": https://www.upi.com/Business_News/2004/07/20/Workers-put-in-more-hours-just-to-keep-up/79691090369058/

Reaganomics, FDR, & deregulation: https://origins.osu.edu/history-news/time-end-deregulation?language_content_entity=en

"Reaganomics Killed America's Middle Class" from Salon: https://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/reaganomics_killed_americas_middle_class_partner/

Marginal tax rates in 2022: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/federal-income-tax-brackets

CEO pay 300x the average worker: https://aflcio.org/paywatch

Reagan quotes via the Reagan Foundation: https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/reagan-quotes-speeches

"The Myth of the Welfare Queen" from The New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/154404/myth-welfare-queen

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act & the 2008 financial crisis: https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/723/

The 2000-2001 California electricity crisis: https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/content/pubs/report/R_103CWR.pdf

"Voodoo economics": https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/voodooeconomics.asp

US GDP & tax revenue in the 1980s: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP

Wealth inequality & GDP growth from OECD: https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/inequality-hurts-economic-growth.htm

Federal debt under Reagan: https://mises.org/library/sad-legacy-ronald-reagan-0

Revolve's Gestalt University: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/resolves-gestalt-university/id1463123745?i=1000510150469

RAND Corporation on wealth transfers: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-1.html

"The Prosperity Gospel, Explained" from Vox: https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/9/1/15951874/prosperity-gospel-explained-why-joel-osteen-believes-prayer-can-make-you-rich-trump

"Amazon Denies Workers Pee in Bottles. Here Are the Pee Bottles" from Vice: https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7amyn/amazon-denies-workers-pee-in-bottles-here-are-the-pee-bottles

Nick Hanauer in The New Republic, "Biden's Plan to Tax Rich People Like Me is the Best Way to Grow the Economy": https://newrepublic.com/article/163852/tax-rich-people-grow-economy

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