[Xmca-l] Fwd: John Oliver on the reality, ideology, and illusions of income inequality in America

[mike cole]

This man is always worth listening to, both because he is funny and because
he is a fine journalist. Forwarded from my colleague, Jeff Weinberg
mike



 *John Oliver on the reality, ideology, and illusions of income inequality
in America*
<http://jeffweintraub.blogspot.com/2014/07/john-oliver-on-reality-ideology-and.html>



Ever since John Oliver left The Daily Show to start his own satirical TV
show, Last Week Tonight, the new show has been quite good, often terrific.
Oliver can be wickedly funny (though sometimes just cheerfully silly), but
along with the laughs he also delivers a good deal of serious, substantial,
and illuminating education on important public issues.

One example was his segment last Sunday about the dramatic increase in
income inequality over the past several decades ... and *some* of the
cultural and ideological reasons why Americans seem to be unable to
confront this subject seriously and intelligently. (A lot of the basic
ideas Oliver is drawing on have been discussed for more than a century—at
least since Werner Sombart's *Why Is There No Socialism In America?* in
1906, though in key respects one really has to go back, as usual, to
Tocqueville's *Democracy in America*—but unfortunately they remain timely
and on-target.)

 You can watch it *here
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LfgSEwjAeno>*.



   * => [If the video clip doesn't come through via e-mail, click HERE
<http://jeffweintraub.blogspot.com/2014/07/john-oliver-on-reality-ideology-and.html>.]
<=*

—Jeff Weintraub
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: johnOliverWealthInequality.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 40884 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://mailman.ucsd.edu/mailman/private/xmca-l/attachments/20140717/a29ea589/attachment.jpe