The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future

Damien Hirst, richest artist in Western Euope and friend of oligarchs everywhere

By Joseph Stiglitz, New York: WW Norton & Co., 2013

With crystal clear prose and a well-organized argument, Stiglitz offers a devastating critique of contemporary American society. He writes, "We have a political system that gives inordinate power to those at the top, and they have used that power not only to limit the extent of redistribution but also to shape the rules of the game in their favor and to extract from the public what can only be called large 'gifts.'" Stiglitz introduced me to the vitally important concept of rent seeking that he defines as obtaining income not as a reward for creating wealth but as the end product of jiggering the political and market environment to one's own advantage. To put the question baldly: one can become wealthy by creating income or one can take it away from others.

I now see rent seeking all around me: agricultural subsidies that go to million dollar corporations; mining companies that extract resources from national parks and pay less than what the commodity is worth; the opaque and unregulated health care industry governed by kick backs and the drive for 20% annual profits; low-wage workers paid with Chase debit cards that charge a fee every time these employees use the card or obtain a "cash advance." These rents move dollars from the bottom and the middle to the top. Stiglitz explores aspects of the political and social systems in America that are rigged in favor of the 1%. A powerful and depressing book.