The United States Can ‘Share The Wealth’ Now, Here’s How

In the United States, back during the Great Depression, three simple words animated a grassroots upsurge that would help make the nation the world’s first mass middle-class society: Share the wealth! And the nation did. By the end of the 1960s, the top 1 percent’s share of America’s national ... Read more

The Homelessness Problem We Don’t Talk About

The punishment for a crime doesn’t necessarily end when the person has been released from prison. Formerly incarcerated people face multiple barriers to securing housing (including public housing) and employment, which can lead to homelessness. And just by virtue of being homeless—by having to sleep ... Read more

The Enemy Between Us: How Inequality Erodes Our Mental Health

When people are asked what matters most for their happiness and wellbeing, they tend to talk about the importance of their relationships with family, friends and colleagues. It is their intimate world, their personal networks that mean the most to them, rather than material goods, ... Read more

You’ve Heard Of The Gender Pay Gap, But There’s More

The gender wage gap continues to harm women, their families, and the economy, despite women being in the workforce for decades. But not all women are marginalized by this disparity in the same way. In 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equity decided to bring awareness to the wage gap by ... Read more

Our ‘Rentier Capitalism’ Is One More Nail In Earth’s Coffin

“Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains.” This famous socialist slogan, adapted from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ “The Communist Manifesto,” struck Noam Chomsky as a poor fit for most people in the world’s rich nations almost half a century ago. “There is ... Read more

Risky Debt Spending Of Bottom Half Is Bolstering The Economy

By almost every measure, the U.S. economy is booming. But a look behind the headlines of roaring job growth and consumer spending reveals how the boom continues in large part by the poorer half of Americans fleecing their savings and piling up debt.

The New Gilded Age: Inequality State-By-State And Local

Income inequality has risen in every state since the 1970s and, in most states, it has grown in the post–Great Recession era. From 2009 to 2015, the incomes of the top 1 percent grew faster than the incomes of the bottom 99 percent in 43 states and the District of Columbia. The top 1 ... Read more

A Sweet New Century For America’s Most Privileged

The United States ended the 20th century on a roll — for the rich. Between 1973 and 2000, the nation’s most prosperous 1 percent tripled their incomes, after taking inflation into account. The even more prosperous top tenth of that 1 percent did quite a bit better. Their incomes more ... Read more

Ignore What The Gini Coefficient Says: Real Inequality Is Growing And People Are Suffering As A Result

The right-wing love to say inequality does not matter. They also love to say that the Gini coefficient that measures inequality is improving. They trumpet as a result that in their opinion all is right in the world because people are now ... Read more

100 Kids, 100 Toys: The Rich Are Only Rich If We Let Them Be.

Life would be very different if we all shared equally. The 325 Million people of the United States produce nearly 20 Trillion dollars of income every year. Credit Suisse estimates that we have a combined net worth (what we own less what we owe) of 94 Trillion dollars…and none of this ... Read more