Transcript of discussion with Joseph E. Stiglitz:Coryat: Thank you so much again for responding so quickly to my messages. I'd like to start by asking you a few questions about the growing inequality associated with the minimum wage. Initially, my argument centered on the dependency created by food stamps. Thanks to my teacher's guidance I was able to realize that the government encourages inadequacy even though it mostly aims to help people. Would we benefit from raising the minimum wage? Stiglitz: The minimum wage is an important function of government sustainability. Overall we can assume that by increasing wages our sector would grow by imitating the price of public services. It would encourage greater saving in order to create resources to move a family up the economic ladder, which becomes a near-impossible challenge for many who fear their job could be quickly passed on to another, more desperate person. The richest 1% receives approximately 20-25% of the national income. This was double what it was at the beginning of the Reagan administration. The top 1/10th of 1% are getting 30 to 40%. The richest 1/3% get over a third of all wealth. Even more disturbing is that America is no longer the land of opportunity. Horaio Alger's report is part of the American conception, the fact of the matter is that today America has become the country with the greatest inequality. Life chances depend more on your parents' income and education than in any other country. The level of inequality is higher than in other countries. One of the main messages is that the same market forces are the same in other advanced countries. We live in a globalized economy. The results are very different from here to there. Coryat: How do we explain…half of the document…World War II? Stiglitz: This is a difficult question. Let's end on a high note. There have been other periods in our history when there were comparable levels of inequality: the Gilded Age, the Roaring '20s; in each of these cases we looked at where our democracy was going and pulled ourselves back from the brink. My hope is that people understand the extent to which inequality has increased. We are paying a higher price for inequality. I hoped that if citizens were united, they could eliminate the divisions that have marked our economy in recent years. I hope I have helped you understand our economic system. I'm happy to answer some of your questions and I apologize if I have to go, have a nice evening.Coryat: Thank you for your time; you have been a vital resource in helping me understand the topic of my essay. Good evening, Mr. Stiglitz.