Who Wants to Be a Trillionaire? The Ethics of Extreme Wealth

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The number of billionaires is expanding at an unprecedented pace, coinciding with a sharp rise in income and wealth inequality. Today, the top 10% of the global population holds nearly three-quarters of the world's wealth, and the prospect of the first trillionaire looms on the horizon. These trends raise profound ethical concerns: Are the ultra-wealthy much-needed visionaries driving innovation and economic growth, or do their fortunes grant them disproportionate power that threatens social stability and democracy?

The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics invites you to the next installment in our Civil Disagreement Series: Who Wants to Be a Trillionaire? The Ethics of Extreme Wealth. The series brings audiences together with a panel of scholars and practitioners holding vastly differing views for lively and thoughtful engagement on contentious issues. This event is co sponsored by the FAS Dean's Civil Discourse Initiative. Attend in-person or view the livestream. 

Panelists:

Jessica Flanigan

Richard L Morrill Chair of Ethics and Democratic Values

University of Richmond 

Jessica Flanigan is the Richard L Morrill Chair of Ethics and Democratic Values at the University of Richmond. Her research addresses the ethics of public policy, medicine, and business. Flanigan is the author of Pharmaceutical Freedom and the co-author of Debating Sex Work, in addition to numerous articles about topics related to wealth inequality, the ethics of markets, distributive justice, billionaire philanthropy, property rights, and the philosophy of Taylor Swift.

Tom Malleson

Associate Professor of Social Justice & Peace Studies
King’s University College, Western University

Tom Malleson is Associate Professor of Social Justice & Peace Studies at King's University College at Western University, Canada. Their recent books include Against Inequality: The Practical and Ethical Case for Abolishing the Superrich and, with Jenny Nedelsky, Part-Time for All: A Care Manifesto.

Shruti Rajagopalan

Senior Research Fellow, India Political Economy and Emergent Ventures India

Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Shruti Rajagopalan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center and a Fellow at the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law. She leads the India political economy research program and Emergent Ventures India at Mercatus. She was an Associate Professor of Economics at Purchase College, State University of New York. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University in 2013. Additionally, she has a BA (hons) in Economics and an LL.B. from University of Delhi and an LL.M. from the European Masters in Law and Economics Program at University of Hamburg, Ghent University, and University of Bologna.

Nien-hê Hsieh

Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration

Harvard Business School

Nien-hê Hsieh is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration in the General Management Unit at Harvard Business School. Professor Hsieh’s research centers on the question of whether and how managers, organizations, and economic institutions ought to be guided not only by considerations of efficiency, but also by values such as freedom and fairness and respect for basic rights and democracy. He has pursued this question in a variety of contexts, including the employment relationship, the operation of multinational enterprises in developing economies, and the ownership of productive property. Professor Hsieh also studies foundational aspects of this question, examining principles for rational decision making when choices involve multiple values that appear incomparable.

Moderator:

Christopher Robichaud

Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Director of Pedagogy and Civil Disagreement, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics

Christopher Robichaud is Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Director of Pedagogy and Civil Disagreement at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. He received his doctorate in philosophy from MIT. His interests surround ethics, political philosophy, and social epistemology, with a focus on examining the role of truth and knowledge in well-functioning democracies and on understanding what the post-truth age of politics is. Dr. Robichaud's work at the Harvard Kennedy School focuses primarily on developing ethics pedagogy for professional policymakers. Dr. Robichaud is also dedicated to bringing philosophical ideas to a wider audience, and pursues this goal by looking at issues in moral and political philosophy that arise in pop culture stories, especially superhero narratives. He is currently under contract with Harvard University Press to write a book of public philosophy that interrogates superhero characters and stories. He has also contributed online content to the EdX Smithsonian course, "The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture" and has developed a new joint Smithsonian-Harvard EdX course, "Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes," which launched in the spring of 2017.