LONDON Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz to understand students demonstrating at American universities. Stiglitz teaches in New York at Columbia University, where the Gaza protests that spread across the country’s campuses began. The youth protested the suffering and deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.
– Which young person would not be distressed by the images and the amount of suffering they see every day. We hope that our students are empathetic and take part in going global, he tells in London.
Police have already arrested more than two thousand protesters on campuses across the United States. Columbia University called in the police to break up the protest on Tuesday. The police arrested a hundred protesters there.
President Joe Biden has condemned the violence. He says Americans have a right to protest, but not to cause chaos.
Stiglitz complains that a small number of protesters have tarnished the reputation of the majority of students who protested peacefully. He sees the protests as part of the wider dissatisfaction of young people with the state of the world and justice.
– It is a symptom of the fact that young people are not satisfied with the features of the world they inherited, such as climate change and inequality. They are worried about student loans and where life will take them, he reflects.
According to Stiglitz, previous environmental and climate protests around the world already show that the youth is not satisfied with the direction of world politics.
A fierce critique of neoliberalism
The same can be said about Stiglitz. He was in London to talk about his new book The Road to Freedom. In his book, the respected economist states that neoliberalism in power has been a decades-long failed experiment.
– People are finally starting to understand the dimensions of failure, he estimates.
The 81-year-old Stiglitz has analyzed the world economy from the parade ground as the president Bill Clinton’s as a leading economic advisor and chief economist of the World Bank in the 1990s.
He is known above all for his strict criticism. In his book Byproducts of Globalization, published in 2002, he criticized globalization and especially the actions of the International Monetary Fund. He demanded a more equal relationship between the West and the rest of the world.
Freedom always grows at the expense of another
The idea of neoliberalism, especially in the United States, is that reducing regulation increases wealth and individual freedom. According to Stiglitz, in neoliberalism freedom is barter. The freedom of one can reduce the freedom of another.
He cites as an example that the freedom to bear arms in the United States limits the freedom of unarmed children to live without fear.
– Can you imagine that children in kindergarten and first grade have to be afraid that someone will come into the classroom and start shooting. Everyday life in America is such that children are even taught to survive it, Stiglitz describes.
Stiglitz writes in his book that the freedom of pharmaceutical companies to set drug prices limits the right of the poor and sick to health and life.
He sees companies operating in neoliberalism as often greedy and dishonest. Consumers are victims. The elderly are being scammed online. But someone is making money.
Donald Trump is a product of neoliberalism
In his opinion, Donald Trump is the result of neoliberal society.
– A character with a cult reputation speaks openly against democracy. 30 percent of the people support it. It shouldn’t work for anyone. But the fact that so many people think it’s good is a symptom that something is wrong, says Stiglitz.
He goes on to list what is wrong.
The promise of stronger economic growth has not been fulfilled. The US growth rates are better than in Europe, but wealth has not flowed from the rich to the poor, even though this is part of the teachings of neoliberalism, he reflects.
The middle class and the poor have not benefited. Elon Musk is the winner.
– If you are among the four hundred richest, it is good to be born in the United States, Stiglitz states.
The book is a criticism of the father of neoliberalism, the sermon in the 1930s to Friedrich Hayek. Stiglitz wants to turn Hayek’s view that the government is bad and the private sector is good on its head.
Traffic lights are an example of good regulation
In his book, Stiglitz searches for a good society and finds it in the Nordic countries. The purpose of regulation, taxation and public services is known there. But all is not well there either. Neoliberal ideas are also on the rise in Sweden and Finland. According to Stiglitz, the issue is still being discussed in Finland.
– The core of the book is where the line is drawn. Where to find the balance. In many European countries, the line is drawn in the wrong place, he says.
For him, paying taxes is the key to everyone’s well-being. He reminds that tax revenues also helped the US government to finance corona vaccines.
In France, the extreme right attacks democracy, but the fight for equality is being fought.
– One of the reasons for the protest of the French yellow vests was that they saw the taxation of carbon dioxide emissions happening to everyone right after the taxes of the rich had been reduced, says Stiglitz.
According to Stiglitz, traffic lights are an example of regulation, which is freedom created through some kind of coercive power. Thanks to them, everyone feels safe and traffic flows smoothly.
One percent owns 40 percent of the wealth
It is clear from Stiglitz that taxation of the super-rich would help strengthen the economy of states today more than before. In the United States, one percent owns 40 percent of the country’s wealth.
– Taxing the richest 1% would generate a lot of money. Instead, they don’t pay a lot of taxes. They are good at avoiding taxes, he says.
Economists are still confident about artificial intelligence. In honor of Stiglitz’s 80th birthday, Stiglitz’s former student entered the professor’s data into Chat GPT. The professor asked it easy and difficult questions and noticed that the artificial intelligence does not beat his own thinking yet.
– At least according to the current version, I still have a future. I cannot be replaced, he says.
The student had stated that perhaps the next version of artificial intelligence will beat the professor.