full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Chrystia Freeland: The rise of the new global super-rich
Unscramble the Blue Letters
So what's not to like? Well, a few things. One of the things that worries me is how easily what you might call meritocratic plutocracy can become crony plutocracy. Imagine you're a brilliant entrepreneur who has slecslsucfuy sold that idea or that product to the global billions and become a brolaliinie in the process. It gets tempting at that point to use your economic nous to manipulate the rleus of the gbalol palociitl economy in your own fovar. And that's no mere hypothetical example. Think about Amazon, Apple, Google, Starbucks. These are among the world's most admired, most beloved, most innovative companies. They also happen to be particularly adept at working the innaioenttral tax system so as to lower their tax bill very, very significantly. And why stop at just playing the global political and economic seystm as it exists to your own maximum advantage? Once you have the tremendous economic power that we're seeing at the very, very top of the income distribution and the political power that inevitably ealitns, it becomes tempting as well to start trying to change the rules of the game in your own favor. Again, this is no mere hypothetical. It's what the Russian olarghcis did in creating the sale-of-the-century privatization of Russia's nrtaual resources. It's one way of describing what happened with ditureloaegn of the financial services in the U.S. and the U.K.
Open Cloze
So what's not to like? Well, a few things. One of the things that worries me is how easily what you might call meritocratic plutocracy can become crony plutocracy. Imagine you're a brilliant entrepreneur who has ____________ sold that idea or that product to the global billions and become a ___________ in the process. It gets tempting at that point to use your economic nous to manipulate the _____ of the ______ _________ economy in your own _____. And that's no mere hypothetical example. Think about Amazon, Apple, Google, Starbucks. These are among the world's most admired, most beloved, most innovative companies. They also happen to be particularly adept at working the _____________ tax system so as to lower their tax bill very, very significantly. And why stop at just playing the global political and economic ______ as it exists to your own maximum advantage? Once you have the tremendous economic power that we're seeing at the very, very top of the income distribution and the political power that inevitably _______, it becomes tempting as well to start trying to change the rules of the game in your own favor. Again, this is no mere hypothetical. It's what the Russian _________ did in creating the sale-of-the-century privatization of Russia's _______ resources. It's one way of describing what happened with ____________ of the financial services in the U.S. and the U.K.
Solution
- successfully
- political
- favor
- billionaire
- system
- natural
- international
- oligarchs
- rules
- entails
- global
- deregulation
Original Text
So what's not to like? Well, a few things. One of the things that worries me is how easily what you might call meritocratic plutocracy can become crony plutocracy. Imagine you're a brilliant entrepreneur who has successfully sold that idea or that product to the global billions and become a billionaire in the process. It gets tempting at that point to use your economic nous to manipulate the rules of the global political economy in your own favor. And that's no mere hypothetical example. Think about Amazon, Apple, Google, Starbucks. These are among the world's most admired, most beloved, most innovative companies. They also happen to be particularly adept at working the international tax system so as to lower their tax bill very, very significantly. And why stop at just playing the global political and economic system as it exists to your own maximum advantage? Once you have the tremendous economic power that we're seeing at the very, very top of the income distribution and the political power that inevitably entails, it becomes tempting as well to start trying to change the rules of the game in your own favor. Again, this is no mere hypothetical. It's what the Russian oligarchs did in creating the sale-of-the-century privatization of Russia's natural resources. It's one way of describing what happened with deregulation of the financial services in the U.S. and the U.K.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
crony capitalism |
5 |
surging income |
3 |
middle class |
3 |
technology revolution |
3 |
industrial revolution |
3 |
created public |
3 |
national income |
2 |
income distribution |
2 |
billion dollars |
2 |
income inequality |
2 |
superstar effect |
2 |
meritocratic plutocracy |
2 |
global political |
2 |
mere hypothetical |
2 |
tremendous social |
2 |
Important Words
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- global
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- happen
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- hypothetical
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- imagine
- income
- inevitably
- innovative
- international
- manipulate
- maximum
- mere
- meritocratic
- natural
- nous
- oligarchs
- playing
- plutocracy
- point
- political
- power
- privatization
- process
- product
- resources
- rules
- russian
- services
- significantly
- sold
- starbucks
- start
- stop
- successfully
- system
- tax
- tempting
- top
- tremendous
- working
- worries