Author(s): Max Rashbrooke

Economics | Aotearoa New Zealand Non-Fiction

Today, someone in the wealthiest 1 per cent of adults – a club of some 40,000 people – has a net worth 68 times that of the average New Zealander.  Too Much Money is the story of how wealth inequality is changing Aotearoa New Zealand. Possessing wealth opens up opportunities to live in certain areas, get certain kinds of education, make certain kinds of social connections, exert certain kinds of power. And when access to these opportunities becomes alarmingly uneven, the implications are profound.  This ground-breaking book provides a far-reaching and compelling account of the way that wealth – and its absence – is transforming our lives. Drawing on the latest research, personal interviews and previously unexplored data, Too Much Money reveals the way wealth is distributed across the peoples of Aotearoa. Max Rashbrooke's analysis arrives at a time of heightened concern for the division of wealth and what this means for our country's future.

Presently, someone in the wealthiest 1 per cent of adults - now a roughly 40,000-strong club - has a net worth 68 times that of the average New Zealander. Too Much Money is the story of how wealth inequality is changing Aotearoa New Zealand. Possessing wealth opens up opportunities to live in certain areas, get certain kinds of healthcare, make certain kinds of social connections, exert certain kinds of power. But when access to these opportunities becomes alarmingly uneven, the implications are profound. This new book by the country's leading chronicler of economic inequality provides a far-reaching and compelling account of the way that wealth - and its absence - is transforming our lives. Drawing on the latest academic research, personal interviews and previously unexplored data, Too Much Money reveals the way wealth is distributed across the peoples of Aotearoa. Having helped elevate the word 'inequality' into the political lexicon, Max Rashbrooke's widely-anticipated new book arrives at a time of heightened concern for the division of wealth and what this means for our country's future.

Author Biography: Max Rashbrooke is a Wellington-based writer and public intellectual. His books, led by the best-selling 'Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis' (new edition 2018), have helped transform national understanding of income and wealth disparities. Rashbrooke's journalism has appeared in major outlets worldwide, including The Guardian, the Economist Group and the New Zealand Herald. He was the 2020 J.D. Stout Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, and is a research associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies. His TED.com talk on renewing democracy has had over 1 million views.