66-110 DC Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Inequality

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This Grand Challenge firstyear seminar on inequality is inspired in part by the specter of global income inequality. Income inequality has reached such a peak that eight men own as much wealth as half the worlds population, the worlds poorest 3.6 billion people. Inequality may be a feature of all societies across history to some degree. But inequality strikes us an especially timely topic because of the current demands for greater political, social, and economic equality. The four of us will use the disciplines we come from economics, anthropology, history, psychology, and literarycultural studies to introduce you to the concept of inequality in the age of capitalism. We will consider how inequality emerged as a social and political problem in the 18th and 19th centuries, and how it has reemerged as a key concept for sociopolitical movements in our current moment. We will conclude with an inquiry into what the future of inequality might look like, especially with the coming of increased automation and the elimination of at least 50 of the jobs currently being done by human beings.

Prerequisites: none listed

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