Inequality

Making Corporations Pay For Big Pay Gaps

October 2, 2019 Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati, Ips-dc.org Educate! Corporations, Exploitation, Inequality, New Economy

For two full years now, publicly held corporations in the United States have had to comply with a federal mandate to report the gap between their CEO and median worker compensation. The resulting disclosures, this report makes clear, have produced truly staggering statistical results. Americans across the political spectrum have been decrying the yawning gaps between CEO and worker compensation for several decades now. Yet Americans still, the research shows, vastly underestimate how wide these gaps have become.

US Census Report: Inequality Grew Rapidly In 2018 To Record Levels

October 1, 2019 Eric London, Wsws.org Educate! Class Struggle, Inequality

Over the course of just the last year, the poorest 20 percent of the country—some 65 million people—saw its share of aggregate income decline from 3.11 percent to 3.10 percent. The share of the second poorest quintile declined from 8.4 percent to 8.35 percent, while the third and fourth quintiles, representing those in the 40 to 60 percent and 60 to 80 percent range of incomes, declined from 14.29 to 14.21 and 22.63 to 22.53, respectively. Only a very narrow section of the population benefited from this income redistribution.

More Cities Pass Laws To Block Dollar Store Chains

September 28, 2019 Charlie Thaxton, Ilsr.org Resist! Inequality, New Economy, Reform

Many residents end up shopping at dollar stores for food instead, the mayor reported. Although most dollar stores sell no fresh foods and offer only a narrow selection of processed items, they’re a ready option in nearly every corner of the city. Over the last decade, the two dominant chains, Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, have multiplied to nearly 40 outlets within Birmingham and more just beyond the city lines. These chains aren’t just taking advantage of food deserts, the mayor had concluded; they’re creating and perpetuating them.

We Need A Homes Guarantee. Now.

September 18, 2019 By Linda Armitage, Inequality.org Create! Affordable Housing, Inequality

I lost everything during the financial crisis. The government decided that the perpetrators of the crisis were “too big to fail” and bailed them out with our money. I was not bailed out. Today, a decade after the crisis, I’m part of a grassroots-led effort to ensure every person in the United States has safe, accessible, sustainable, and permanently affordable housing. I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I’ve gone through. After the crash, I had to change my whole life. I didn’t have a 401(k) retirement account to fall back on. I had to cancel travel plans. I had to find a place to live.

The Solution To Homelessness Is Staring Us In The Face

September 16, 2019 Robert Scheer, Truthdig.com Create! Affordable Housing, Homelessness, Inequality

It’s no secret that homelessness in the United States, especially in California, has reached critical levels. That the wealthiest state in the wealthiest nation in the world is dealing with a crisis that stems so clearly from inequality and neglect should have its predominantly left-leaning residents up in arms. And to some extent, they are. Becky Dennison, executive director of Venice Community Housing in Los Angeles, who speaks with Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence,” has dedicated her life’s work to helping address homelessness...

As We Transition Away From Fossil Fuels, We Must Also Tackle Inequality

September 16, 2019 By J. Mijin Cha, Truthout.org Create! Fossil Fuels, Inequality, New Economy

Two truths lie at the heart of efforts to transition away from fossil fuels. The first is that to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, we must rapidly and dramatically reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. The second is that the resulting decrease in fossil fuel use and extraction will cause displacement of workers and the loss of tax revenue for many communities, and in some cases, it will eliminate entire tax bases. The second truth does not change the first, and the costs of inaction will far outweigh the cost of decarbonization.

How Greedy Hospitals Fleece The Poor

September 13, 2019 By LibWatson, Newrepublic.com Educate! Health Care, Hospitals, Inequality

The pundit class collapsed back in its chair last week, exhausted and spent, from a furious wonk-off session over Bernie Sanders’s rhetoric on medical bankruptcies. The Washington Post’s in-house political fact-checking apparatus assigned a devastating three Pinnocchios to Sanders for saying 500,000 people a year go bankrupt from medical bills. The Sanders camp complained, and the Post’s Grand Factmaster Glenn Kessler pushed back. Wonks stranded on the periphery of the action, like Megan McArdle, joined the fray, arguing that medical bankruptcies are actually much less common than Sanders asserts...

Should We Feed Hungry Children, Or The War Machine?

September 6, 2019 Medea Benjamin, Opendemocracy.net Organize! Inequality, US military, Wars and Militarism

On August 21, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, put out a heartbreaking call for nations to make good on their pledges to send humanitarian aid to feed destitute families in war-torn Yemen. Unless the funds promised are received soon, she warned, food rations for 12 million people would be reduced and at least 2.5 million malnourished children would be cut-off from the services that keep them alive. “When money doesn’t come,” Grande said bluntly, “people die.”

The UBI Already Exists. It Is Just Unevenly Distributed

September 6, 2019 Matt Bruenig, Peoplespolicyproject.org Educate! Guaranteed basic income, Inequality, Reform

So let us do the math here. Providing every person $10,000 a year would sum up to about $3.2 trillion. This would be passive income paid out to people with no strings attached and without them having to work for it. Now ask yourself: do we have any other kind of income in our society that is paid out passively to people with no strings attached and without them having to work for it? Yes. We do. It is called “capital income” or, at other times, the “net operating surplus.” How much capital income is there in our current economy? $5 trillion.

Racial Inequality Is Rooted in Denial of Home And Land Ownership

August 30, 2019 Jacqueline Luqman, Therealnews.com Educate! Housing, Inequality, Land, Racism

The racial wealth gap is finally being discussed seriously in this election cycle and in the country. And some people are even citing the history of slavery, racism, and discrimination that created the racial wealth gap. One of the key factors in the creation of this phenomenon of the racial wealth gap is housing policy. Or more specifically, there is a link between the ability white people have historically had to own property and homes that have accumulated value and created wealth, that they were able to pass down to future generations, that black people were not allowed to enjoy equally.

Billionaires Are A Sign Of Economic Failure

August 30, 2019 By Max Lawson, Inequality.org Educate! Inequality, New Economy, Ruling Class

The New York Times published an editorial comment on its front page in January 2019, provocatively entitled “abolish billionaires.” The editorial raised a serious question: what if instead of being a sign of economic success, billionaires are a sign of economic failure? In what ways can the boom in billionaires, and the dramatic increase in extreme wealth generally, be harmful? To answer this question, we need to understand the origins of billionaire wealth, and to understand how that wealth is used once it is gained. The answer to both these questions I think rightly casts doubt on the value of the super-rich in our society.

Inequality In The U.S. Is Stifling Economic Growth And Could Cost Us As Much As $1.5 Trillion

August 21, 2019 Ruth Milka, Nationofchange.org Educate! Inequality, New Economy

Failure to close the gap, leaving the majority of wealth among the super-rich, will cost the economy anywhere from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion by 2028. The massive (and growing) wealth inequality in the US is hindering economic growth in the country, says a new report. Compiled by consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the new report “quantifies the impact” the wealth inequality gap. Failure to close the gap, leaving the majority of wealth among the super-rich, will cost the economy anywhere from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion by 2028.

CEO Compensation Has Grown 940% Since 1978

August 16, 2019 By Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe, Epi.org Educate! Bosses, Inequality, New Economy, Wages, Workers

What this report finds: The increased focus on growing inequality has led to an increased focus on CEO pay. Corporate boards running America’s largest public firms are giving top executives outsize compensation packages. Average pay of CEOs at the top 350 firms in 2018 was $17.2 million—or $14.0 million using a more conservative measure. (Stock options make up a big part of CEO pay packages, and the conservative measure values the options when granted, versus when cashed in, or “realized.”) CEO compensation is very high relative to typical worker compensation...

The World’s Wealthiest Family Gets $4 Million Richer Every Hour

August 13, 2019 Staff, Bloomberg.com Educate! Inequality, New Economy, Ruling Class, Wealth

The numbers are mind-boggling: $70,000 per minute, $4 million per hour, $100 million per day. That’s how quickly the fortune of the Waltons, the clan behind Walmart Inc., has been growing since last year’s Bloomberg ranking of the world’s richest families. At that rate, their wealth would’ve expanded about $23,000 since you began reading this. A new Walmart associate in the U.S. would’ve made about 6 cents in that time, on the way to an $11 hourly minimum.

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