Video Interview: Robert Johnson at the New Economics Institute Strategies for a New Economy Conference

Recorded live at the New Economics Institute Strategies for a New Economy Conference on June 9, 2012, Institute for New Economic Thinking Executive Director Robert Johnson speaks about valuing access to common resources, and the adverse social impacts of inequality. Water and air are priced at zero, meaning in order to breathe, I don't have to pay a tollgate, Johnson says. On the other hand, if you cut off my air and water, I would be willing to pay to get it turned back on -- so there's something amiss in a theory of value that doesn't value these common resources, the common pool upon which we all base our continuing ability to be alive.

The questions of inequality are really really raging, Johnson continues. The most important thing I see is that the consequences of inequality for society are adverse. If inequality produces bad social side effects, then we have to reexamine what technologies and what trade regimes we choose to employ -- not just from the standpoint of the nat