Name: Sheryl Sandberg and Marc Andreessen: Is Income Inequality Irrelevant?
Uploaded: 2015-11-03
Duration: 5 min 41 s
Description: The Facebook COO and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz discuss what the role of technology plays in solving inequality problems around the world.

Inequality is a big issue. No one gets it on the stage or anywhere and not believe that inequality is not a big issue in our country and in the world, but technology and the progress it creates creates a cure for leprosy. Creates a cure and a treatment, well not a cure yet, but a treatment for AIDS that's working. Because taking malaria deaths. Which is great. Will it care what Paul Tudor Jones was looking, I was the inequality within American society. So inequality is a load of terms. There's inequality of outcome and then there is inequality of opportunity. So clearly he's looking at inequality of outcome? Yeah, well so did Marks. Like you need to be careful. You think it doesn't matter. You need to be careful where the Are you gonna buy on to this? Yeah, I mean [ CROSSTALK ] The experiment to get into [ CROSSTALK ] has been run. Correct? Yes. They did it in China but before [ CROSSTALK ] Caracas is lovely this time of year. I highly encourage a trip. No, I'm totally serious. Let me finish my point. What we want is equality of opportunity. We want everybody to have a chance to participate. We want everybody to have a chance to get educated. We want everybody to have a chance to get a great job. We want everybody to be able to take care of their kids. To do that, we need to open up opportunity and then the other thing we need is we just need more growth. And one of the things that's happened in the current political environment is we've been through 15 years in the US of very slow growth. After the financial crisis, we need more growth. I agree. Is inequality of outcomes irrelevant? No, of course not and I don't think Mark believes that either. I think what Mark is saying is true but the thing I want too add is we definitely have inequality of opportunity in the United States. You cannot look at our school system and decide that there's not huge inequality of outcomes and the clear message for everyone is, Education matters more. Right. And we are stuck with an education system that was created around an agricultural calendar that makes no sense in schools that are failing that we refuse to help. And- And technology ought to be able to help. Technology can help. Because what you can have is the very best teachers in the world like Cellcon able to, anyone to access this. Technology can help us do what has to be done in education which is Measure progress because that's the only way we can understand progress and so what's very clear is that we all agree on equality of opportunity. We know we don't have it and we can't have it until we fix our school systems. And in the global economy if you look at the students our country's churning out and you look at the students of other countries. As a country we should be panicked about our education. I don't want to be stubborn about this, maybe I want to be a little bit stubborn about this but if you had perfect equality of opportunity, do we not live in a world where technology is driving greater inequality of outcomes? Because of kind of the winner take all or winner take most Tendencies of many technological disruptions. I mean that's an observable fact. Is this Fortune magazine? No, I'm just asking. Is this the next stop on International Workers Party conference? [ LAUGH ] Look- So wait. [ INAUDIBLE ] No go ahead. No, no, no please, do your... I think I've done my damage. No, the is basic. This is a very old political and economic debate. The experiment has been run in both directions many, many times. No question. China reduced poverty more than ever in world history by explicitly giving up Equality as a goal. [ CROSSTALK ] And as a consequence. I'm not sure that's the same as saying, we don't care that some people are making 300 times more. Inequality in itself is an issue for many people. I think inequality itself. It may not be an issue for you. So how do you propose to stop the next malaria. I'm not proposing anything I'm just asking how do you [ LAUGH ] Should we drone their garage next time start writing a new algorithm to make money? A lot of people are ignoring the fact that technology is driving [ CROSSTALK ] I don't think [ CROSSTALK ] I think that people are making claims that simply aren't true. You don't think technology has anything to do with it? No. The world is becoming more equal with more technology. Right now. Global income equality is dropping not rising. Within societies there are greater differences. There are changes that happen but globally, we care about human beings on a broad basis. Life is getting better and equality is dropping. So I think inequality clearly matters. I think it's something we have to work on. [ CROSSTALK ] Wait, Ray? Wait. I think we wanna look at something else, which I think is what Mark is getting at, which is how do we have an impact on the people on the world who need growth, who need education, who need clean water? So here's what we know. WOrld Bank global poverty is a dollar 25 a day, one in six people in the planet live under that line. In the United States, if you were the average connected Facebook user, your implicit data charges for Facebook are a dollar a day. So, you want to talk inequality, that's inequality. Thos of us in this room are using in Facebook data. What other people are living on per day. So then the question becomes how are we gonna take the people who are really at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder and lift their lives up. And for them this means healthier, longer, happier lives. Going to bed not hungry, living in places where there isn't war. This is the most important inequality in the world and The only answer any of us have is technology. And so one of the things Facebook's doing is we have something we call internet. org where we're working on making apps and making apps available that are cheaper to get data to people. And then what happens? They can sell their crops for better prices in the markets. They can save their pregnancies and save their children, because they can get access to healthcare. We already have millions of people connected and these stories pouring in. Yeah, so- And so, that's where I think the focus needs to be, is how do we take what is happening and improve the lives of the people that need it the most. So I don't think I've created enough controversy yet, so let's talk about politics.

The Facebook COO and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz discuss what the role of technology plays in solving inequality problems around the world.