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Billionaires | Munk Debates

June 21, 2022

Billionaires

Be it resolved, a society that allows billionaires to exist is immoral.

Guests
Bhaskar Sunkara
James Pethokoukis
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About this episode

Income inequality in the US is at an all-time high. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett now own as much wealth as the bottom half of all US households combined. Bernie Sanders and his growing political movement believe that billionaires should be taxed out of existence. That the uber-rich are part of a new oligarchical system that grows its wealth at the expense of everyone else and which wields too much power over politics and democratic institutions. Defenders of billionaires argue that penalizing the wealthy is bad public policy – the super rich are innovators and wealth creators who produce widespread employment and economic growth. Billionaires are also living proof that the long-cherished American dream is alive and well. We need to reward entrepreneurial vision and drive, and not demonize the rich.

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Guests

Bhaskar Sunkara

"Billionaires are a product of a society that has given a tremendous power and wealth to a few while giving declining shares of this great socially-created wealth to many."

Bhaskar Sunkara

"Billionaires are a product of a society that has given a tremendous power and wealth to a few while giving declining shares of this great socially-created wealth to many."

Bhaskar Sunkara is the founding editor of Jacobin magazine and publisher of Catalyst journal, both of which offer socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture, as well as critiques of capitalism from a global perspective. An advocate of democratic socialism, he is the author of “The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality,” and a columnist at The Guardian.  

James Pethokoukis

"If you want to have more opportunities for your children, if you want higher standards of living, it's going to come from a dynamic, capitalist economy where people innovate, partially, because they can become rich."

James Pethokoukis

"If you want to have more opportunities for your children, if you want higher standards of living, it's going to come from a dynamic, capitalist economy where people innovate, partially, because they can become rich."

James Pethokoukis is the Dewitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he analyzes economic policy and edits the AEIdeas blog. He is a regular CNBC contributor and a columnist for The Week.
Before joining AEI, he was the Washington columnist for Reuters “Breakingviews,” the opinion and commentary wing of Thomson Reuters, and the business editor and economics columnist for US News & World Report.
A graduate of Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism, Mr. Pethokoukis is also a 2002 “Jeopardy!” champion.
 

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