Word: thinks
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Some relatively equal societies, such as Japan, and some states such as New Hampshire have smaller differences between earnings before taxes and benefits. The other way is to start off like Sweden does - with large inequalities between earnings - and then redistribute wealth with high taxes and benefits. I think we need to do both. To reduce earning differences you need as many different forms of economic democracy as possible. We need to make it a bit more embarrassing for company directors to give themselves huge pay deals and bonuses while holding down wages elsewhere in their company...
...believe an emphasis on economic equality could help the battle against climate change. How? RW: The biggest challenge to slowing carbon emissions is consumerism. Consumerism is driven by status competition and is intensified by inequality. Further, more-equal societies are more willing to think about the common good and to be more public-spirited. You can see this in terms of the proportion of waste recycled or the proportion of international development aid given. Both are greater in more-equal countries. In more-equal countries, business leaders are more likely to stress that their governments should abide by international environmental...
...know that you think that makes me insane. After all, I run one of the most impoverished countries in the world. Here, a boom year is any one in which we manage to avoid a famine that kills thousands. But you have to understand, what I value most is control. That's what my father, our country's heroic founder, the Great Leader Kim il-Sung, desired; it's what I desire; and I've pretty much bet the family jewels that my 26-year-old son, Kim Jong-Un, will want the same thing when he takes over...
...your standards, we are not "rational." I mean, look, we just had a planeload of missile parts intercepted in Thailand. I think you know where that plane was headed. Why in the world would we be shipping parts for our glorious Taepodong 2 missile to Iran, when the entire world is worried about their nuclear program? Because some of my close comrades here in the Party run the trading company that sells the missiles, and the way I keep them loyal is to let them make some money...
...that our regime is not going anywhere. Then, lend us some money, build a power plant or two, maybe help us with agriculture and food production. And then, after a while - a decade, perhaps? - if enough trust has been built up, then maybe we'd start to think about getting rid of our nukes...