"Most Americans are worst off than they were in 1997," says renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz.

In order to save our tanking economy, the rich need to pay more taxes, he says.

Stiglitz thinks that a progressive tax is the key to spurring economic growth while closing the gap between the rich and the poor.

"What's been happening in the United States is while the top has been doing very very well, the middle has not been doing very well," Stiglitz tells Business Insider editor-in-chief Henry Blodget.

"In fact, income in the middle – the median, half above/half below – is today lower than it was a decade-and-a-half ago."

Stiglitz, who just published a new book titled The Price of Inequality, explains how progressive taxation (aka, taxing the rich) will save our economy in the video below:

Produced by Kamelia Angelova, William Wei & Daniel Goodman

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