What would an HONEST debate about a wealth tax look like?
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How did Gary introduce the episode and explain his media frustration?
Okay, welcome back to Gary's Economics. Today we're going to ask the question, what if the economics media was actually good? All right, so this is probably going to be one of the last ever weekly Gary's Economics videos. More on that next week. But it will definitely be one of the tiredest because I am talking to you right now from the middle of what seems to be Gary's Economics week here in the UK. where I am all over the press to celebrate my new documentary, How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson. That came out on Channel 4 this week. We've had tons of press. We've had this big issue takeover, which is great. Go get yourself one of those. I think they're still selling if you watch it, if you buy it today on Sunday.
And I have been absolutely running around the houses doing all kinds of different press for different newspapers, TV, radio, YouTube, podcast. And I've got to be honest, as much as I'm very, very proud of the new documentary, I really, really hate doing these press tours. And I find them incredibly frustrating, really. And the main reason that I find them frustrating is because so much of the economics media is really quite...
rubbish there are exceptions of course yesterday i was interviewed by krishnan guru murthy for channel 4 news and he interviewed me last year as well and i think he is one of the few interviewers that really gives a bit of challenge but also provides a bit of space to actually get into the ideas but a lot of the interviews that i've been doing um and the reason why i sort of stopped doing media a few years ago
is because I find there is really very little space and attempt given to actually get into any serious ideas to actually explain what's happening to actually educate the viewer and I think this tendency to lean towards this sort of debate style format where basically people are kind of forced to disagree with each other and forced to argue with each other I just don't think educates anyone and it's incredibly frustrating for me because I've obviously been working in economics for 20 years and studying inequality economics for 15 years. And when I go on these shows, I really want to be able to really deal with the criticisms and really discuss the problems and try to explain and educate the viewer.
And the space is really, really, really given.
How should we separate issues when discussing a wealth tax?
And it's been a frustrating week. I've been all around London doing a ton of interviews. And what I really wanted to do was get back to basics of why we started this channel. When I started this channel, what I wanted to do was provide the space to really compete with the mainstream economics media that provided an economic space that was calm, sensible, relaxed, and really educated the viewer about what's happening. So as an antidote to my week of nonsense interviews, what I wanted to do was talk about how would we discuss the wealth tax debate if the media was actually good. Couple of quick shout outs. The documentary came out this week on Wednesday. It is available now on 4OD, How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson.
I worked really hard on it. I'm really proud of it. I think it's really good. I'm hoping it's going to move the political debate. If you've not watched it yet, go and watch it. We'll put a link up here or in the description. The big issue takeover this week. I'm in it. Gabriel Zuckman, Rebecca Gowland, Duane's Patron Millionaires, Louisa Munch, Jimmy the Giant, Frankie McNamara, who's a meditation for an anxious mind, Barry's Economics, a big favourite, hyphen, punk artist. This is still available. I think the new one comes out on Monday. So get this one quick. If you're a big issue vendor, keep a few of these because I reckon some people are going to want them. Okay, let's get started on how to discuss the wealth tax in a good media.
All right, so number one is separation of issues. And this is the ability to understand inequality and the growth of inequality and the problems that are caused by the growth of inequality and wealth taxes as separate issues that can be discussed separately.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How did Gary introduce the episode and explain his media frustration?
0:00–2:15
2
How should we separate issues when discussing a wealth tax?
2:15–29:23
3
What exactly is wealth and why does it matter for inequality?
29:23–37:59
4
Is wealth inequality growing and how can we measure the very rich?
37:59–49:24