The state of the world from the elite point of view.

Karl Marx declared that all value stems from labor. Was he right?

I quantify the cutthroat nature of the music industry by measuring the half life of hit songs — the time they spend above 50% of their peak popularity.

I crunch the numbers on COVID vaccines. No surprises … they’re going overwhelmingly to rich countries.

Have humans always been egalitarian? The evolutionary evidence suggests not.

I take a look at kinetic exchange models of income, and what we can learn from their mistakes.

I look at the degrowth that might be achieved by eliminating inequality.

The talk version of my recent paper on degrowth.

This is the second in a series of two essays written for and supported by the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on an Equitable and Resilient Society. These essays investigate the role that hierarchy plays in driving inequality and unsustainability. Summary Humanity’s most pressing need is to learn how to live within our planet’s boundaries — something that likely means doing without economic growth.

A talk given to the SEEFAR center about the problems with human capital theory.