Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel explore how inequality isn’t just about wealth—it’s about dignity. They discuss how economic structures fail to value workers without elite credentials and propose solutions that go beyond redistribution.
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What does equality really mean, and why does it matter now more than ever? In this series of conversations, proudly supported by Arminio Fraga, world-renowned economist Thomas Piketty and philosopher Michael Sandel engage in a deep and urgent conversation about the roots of economic and social inequality. They explore how globalization, meritocracy, and capitalism have shaped our world—and what we can do to create a fairer future. Inspired by their new book, Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters, this series challenges conventional wisdom and offers bold solutions.
amazon.com/Equality-What-Means-Why-Matters/dp/1509565507
In this compelling dialogue, two of the world's most influential thinkers reflect on the value of equality and debate what citizens and governments should do to narrow the gaps that separate us. Ranging across economics, philosophy, history, and current affairs, Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel consider how far we have come in achieving greater equality. At the same time, they confront head-on the extreme divides that remain in wealth, income, power, and status nationally and globally.
What can be done at a time of deep political instability and environmental crisis? Piketty and Sandel agree on much: more inclusive investment in health and education, higher progressive taxation, curbing the political power of the rich and the overreach of markets. But how far and how fast can we push? Should we prioritize material or social change? What are the prospects for any change at all with nationalist forces resurgent? How should the left relate to values like patriotism and local solidarity where they collide with the challenges of mass migration and global climate change?
To see Piketty and Sandel grapple with these and other problems is to glimpse new possibilities for change and justice but also the stubborn truth that progress towards greater equality never comes quickly or without deep social conflict and political struggle.
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Thomas Piketty is Professor of Economics at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University.
Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel explore how inequality isn’t just about wealth—it’s about dignity. They discuss how economic structures fail to value workers without elite credentials and propose solutions that go beyond redistribution.
//
What does equality really mean, and why does it matter now more than ever? In this series of conversations, proudly supported by Arminio Fraga, world-renowned economist Thomas Piketty and philosopher Michael Sandel engage in a deep and urgent conversation about the roots of economic and social inequality. They explore how globalization, meritocracy, and capitalism have shaped our world—and what we can do to create a fairer future. Inspired by their new book, Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters, this series challenges conventional wisdom and offers bold solutions.
amazon.com/Equality-What-Means-Why-Matters/dp/1509565507
In this compelling dialogue, two of the world's most influential thinkers reflect on the value of equality and debate what citizens and governments should do to narrow the gaps that separate us. Ranging across economics, philosophy, history, and current affairs, Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel consider how far we have come in achieving greater equality. At the same time, they confront head-on the extreme divides that remain in wealth, income, power, and status nationally and globally.
What can be done at a time of deep political instability and environmental crisis? Piketty and Sandel agree on much: more inclusive investment in health and education, higher progressive taxation, curbing the political power of the rich and the overreach of markets. But how far and how fast can we push? Should we prioritize material or social change? What are the prospects for any change at all with nationalist forces resurgent? How should the left relate to values like patriotism and local solidarity where they collide with the challenges of mass migration and global climate change?
To see Piketty and Sandel grapple with these and other problems is to glimpse new possibilities for change and justice but also the stubborn truth that progress towards greater equality never comes quickly or without deep social conflict and political struggle.
//
Thomas Piketty is Professor of Economics at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University.
![Intellectual Property Is Broken [Dean Baker]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cJJZUgt8kVM/mqdefault.jpg "Intellectual Property Is Broken [Dean Baker]
Why are we incentivizing wealth at the expense of health?
Dean Baker (@cepr) breaks down why our intellectual property system is in desperate need of reform.
Produced by Matthew Kulvicki & Nick Alpha")
![System Change - [ECO]NOMICS Part 4](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eT0tp3OfF64/mqdefault.jpg "System Change - [ECO]NOMICS Part 4
Encouraged by economists, current mainstream policy on climate change has been too focused on green growth, and reliant on market-based solutions, which have proven inadequate to the challenge. Professor Juliet Shor emphasizes it is time to reject business as usual and build a new economy.
In this fourth and last part of [ECO]NOMICS, Prof. Schor explores the structural changes necessary to live within planetary boundaries.
For starters, we need to improve our understanding of human well-being. Public policy has focused on a single flawed number - GDP - ignoring that higher quality of life can be achieved on other dimensions, like fewer working hours. While growth is essential for poor countries to achieve decent standards of living, after a certain threshold, the incremental benefits of increasing GDP are fewer and unequally distributed. Prof. Schor shows it is both economically and technically feasible to achieve high levels of well-being without fossil fuels.
Climate policy should jettison the growth imperative, but it cannot overlook the equality imperative. We are in a climate crisis because of inequalities of power and resources, both within countries and globally. Prof. Schor outlines what needs to be done to address climate destabilization successfully and efficiently: mandate shifts to clean renewable energy, democratic control of investment flows, and a just transition with equity at its core. The State needs to be at the center of this response. But Prof. Schor warns that concentrations of wealth often translate into control of the State and policy inaction, so we need to also address the distribution of power and democratization. In light of recent tendencies, a large and vigorous social movement may be necessary to spur our governments to act.
Learn more at https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/videos/eco-nomics
Credits: Juliet Schor, Matthew Kulvicki, Nick Alpha, Gonçalo Fonseca, Kurt Semm")
