On Thursday 15 November in the Town Hall, Sydney’s annual Peace Prize was awarded to the Noble Laureate and Economics Professor Dr Joseph Stiglitz. The day before he was accorded the honour of addressing the National Press Club.
The evening consisted of Dr Stiglitz addressing the capacity audience and thereafter, in a question and answer format, with respected journalist Laura Tingle.
Dr Stiglitz is a well known long term opponent of ‘trickle down’ and neo-liberal economics. As evidence of the failure of Dr Milton Friedman and his laissez faire philosophies Dr Stiglitz gave some startling examples. Adjusted for inflation America’s workers have not received a pay rise in sixty years. One seventh of American families were below the poverty line. Perhaps the most startling statistic was, that due to the inaccessibility of health care to large swathes of the population, life expectancy in the United States is falling unlike any other First World country. As a result he heavily criticised President Trump’s attempts to cut health care even further.
At the Davos economics conference in Switzerland it was calculated that if you divided the incomes of the richest people in the world with the earnings of the rest of the world, you would only have 42 people occupying for example, a bus. In addition he railed against climate change sceptics due to their close links with oil and gas, warned against further erosion of penalty rates in Australia, and decried the weakening of trade unions thereby leading to the decline in workers conditions and bargaining rights.
In a final declaration he posited that improvements in mankind’s health and quality of life have come from universities. The retreat of government from its social responsibilities and the slashing of funds to higher learning institutions made him extremely angry and slightly pessimistic. He feared that the decline set out above would lead to a cesspool fostering extreme elements on both the left and right. He received a standing ovation and clearly delighted in receiving the Peace Prize from Lord Mayor Clover Moore, stating that it was his greatest honour to date.
Featured image – Dr Joseph Stiglitz receiving his Peace Prize award from Lord Mayor Clover Moore.