People’s economist charges a pretty penny
Two hundred and fifty bucks to learn inequality from Schrödinger's Gary.
There is a particular ilk of operator that Australia, in its bottomless generosity, has always welcomed with open arms. They arrive with a story – always a story – about having been on the inside of something vast and malevolent, having seen what the rest of us cannot see, and having made the heroic decision to come back and tell us about it – for a fee. Gary Stevenson is this ilk perfected. Stevenson – who performs as "Gary's Economics" to three million social media followers – landed in Australia last week for what he's branded The People's Economist Tour. On Saturday evening, he appeared at Melbourne Town Hall. The people – Gary's people – forked out between $129 and $250 for the privilege.
The pitch is intoxicating, delivered with the practiced fluency of a man who has delivered it ten thousand times on YouTube, on podcasts, in a number 1 Sunday Times best-selling memoir, and now from a stage near you:
The system is rigged. The rich are getting richer. You are getting poorer. This is not an accident; it is by design. The people who designed it don't want you to understand it. Gary Stevenson understands it. Gary Stevenson, crucially, was one of them. And Gary Stevenson – at a certain price – is prepared to explain it to you.
Let us dispense with the easy observation first: there is a foundational irony in charging the cost-of-living-crisis demographic two hundred and fifty dollars to hear about the cost-of-living crisis.
His own Instagram audience noticed it instantly. "Not $200 to listen to how capitalism is wrong!" wrote one. "250 bucks for a meet and greet? Who do you think you are?" wrote another. "How many working class people would be able to afford to attend this?" asked a third. "I can't afford to go I have an electricity bill to pay," wrote another. These are not hostile critics. These are Gary's people, and they've clocked him.
