RSA - The Haves and the Have-Nots

The Haves and the Have-Nots

1st Feb 2011; 13:00

(full recording including audience Q&A)
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RSA Keynote

Branko Milanovic is one of the world's leading experts on global inequality, and visits the RSA to tell the story of wealth and poverty through the ages.

Inequality is a complex issue - it involves not just straight comparisons of, say, two individuals, but also has to account for price and consumption differences around the world and over time.

After addressing many of these problems in his research, Milanovic, lead economist in the World Bank’s research department, now approaches the issues of wealth of poverty in a wholly innovative way: through comparable stories.

In "Pride and Prejudice", how rich was Elizabeth Bennett's suitor, Mr. Darcy, really? How does being really rich in the Roman Empire (Nero) compare to today's super rich (Paris Hilton)? Just who are the richest people today? How should we think about Marxism and socialism and their failures? Why did Marx think the wrong way about poverty? How does location matter to how rich you are and how rich your children are likely to be? How does all of this affect us now, and what can we do about it?

Chair: Kate Pickett; Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of York and co-author of The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone

Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #rsabranko