HBRW 2022 - Too Much Money - Max Rashbrooke

Today, someone in the wealthiest 1% – a club of some 40,000 people – has a net worth 68 times that of the average New Zealander. Max Rashbrooke talks to Chris Perley about how wealth inequality is changing Aotearoa New Zealand, reshaping access to housing, education, social connections and power. How is wealth distributed around Aotearoa, should we be worried about it, and what’s to be done?

Max Rashbrooke is a Wellington-based writer and public intellectual, with twin interests in economic inequality and democratic renewal. His latest book is Too Much Money: How Wealth Disparities are Unbalancing Aotearoa New Zealand, based on research he carried out as the 2020 J. D. Stout Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington. His previous works include Government for the Public Good: The Surprising Science of Large-Scale Collective Action and Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, both published by Bridget Williams Books. A senior associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, he writes a fortnightly column for Stuff, and his work appears in outlets such as the Guardian and Prospect magazine. His TED.com talk on upgrading democracy has been viewed over 1m times.

Chris Perley has a background in primary sector and regional strategy, policy, research, and operational management across land use community, economy and the environment. He is a research affiliate in the Centre for Sustainability (CSAFE) Otago University.

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