Thinking Allowed
Wealth
Feb 11, 2025
Brooke Harrington, a Professor of Economic Sociology at Dartmouth, dives into the murky waters of offshore finance, revealing its global repercussions and moral dilemmas. She shares her firsthand research experiences in tax havens, questioning the cost of secrecy in an unequal world. Joining her is Guido Alfani, an Economic History Professor at Bocconi University, who unravels the precarious history of the super-rich over a millennium. Together, they ponder how societal views of wealth have evolved and what that means for accountability today.
28:12
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Quick takeaways
- Brooke Harrington's research highlights innovative methods required to understand the elusive super-rich, contrasting traditional sociological approaches centered on the less fortunate.
- The podcast discusses how offshore finance not only provides secrecy for the ultra-wealthy but also raises critical concerns about its implications for democratic governance and societal equity.
Deep dives
The Sociological Focus on Wealth Inequality
Sociological research tends to concentrate on the less fortunate members of society because they are more accessible to data collection by governments and aid organizations. In contrast, the super-rich remain elusive due to their wealth, which enables them to avoid scrutiny from the press and public inquiry. This research gap poses challenges for sociologists who seek to understand the dynamics of wealth and power among the affluent. As wealth manager Brooke Harrington illustrates, investigating the lives of the wealthy requires innovative approaches, such as her decision to train as a wealth manager herself to gain insights into their financial behaviors.
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