Will the 1% act on inequality before the riots start? | Jared Diamond

111 Views · Published on Sat, 25 May 2019 · INTERVIEWS

Give yourself the gift of knowledge by subscribing to Big Think Edge: http://bit.ly/bigthinkedge Riots may ensue as more poor Americans recognize their "miserable" long-term prospects. - How bad is wealth inequality in the United States? About 1 percent of Americans hold 80 percent of the money. - In the United States, the correlation between the income of parents and the income of their children when they grow up is higher than in any other country in the world. - One of the big underlying reasons for poverty is receiving a crummy education, which in turn leads to crummy jobs. When people recognize their miserable long-term prospects, they are more likely to partake in riots. Jared Diamond, a noted polymath, is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of the international best-selling books Guns, Germs, and Steel; Collapse; Why Is Sex Fun?; The World Until Yesterday; and The Third Chimpanzee, and is the presenter of TV documentary series based on three of those books. He is the author of "Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis" (http://bit.ly/jardiamond) Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink