Economist Paul Krugman recently joined Bill to talk about the new academic book rocking the best-seller lists: Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. In this clip, Krugman says that our debates on income inequality, and how to combat it, have gotten downright ugly.
Watch the three-minute clip:
“There’s a level of harshness in our debates mostly coming from the people who are actually doing very well,” Krugman tells Moyers. “We’ve had a parade of billionaires whining about the incredible injustice that people are actually criticizing them. And then comparing anyone who criticizes them to the Nazis. It’s almost a tic that they have.” Krugman recently wrote about the billionaires — including Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone — who have spoken out and surmised that the idea that income inequality is the result of a systemic problem and not a lack of sufficient effort on the part of those struggling to get by “is anathema” to them.
