Dedicated to the notion that our world would be considerably more caring, prosperous, and democratic if we narrowed the vast gap that divides our wealthy from everyone else.
By every measure that matters, relatively equal nations far outperform nations where income and wealth concentrate at the top. This powerful new book explores these contrasts — and explains them.
This American Library Association “outstanding title” of the year (Choice, Jan 2006) explores the price we pay for massive inequality. Now available for reading online.
Back in the 1930s, a University of Chicago project set out to list western civilization’s greatest books. Only one book by an author then living, this one, made the cut.
“BP should be dedicating its resources to compensating the residents of the Gulf Coast who are the victims of this tragedy, not handing out multi-million-dollar golden parachutes.”
Rep. Ed Markey, after BP announced an up to $18.5 million severance package for outgoing CEO Tony Hayward, Nix Hayward’s Payoff Package, July 26, 2010
How much has rising executive pay tilted America’s income scales? One indication: In 1972, the nation’s top 1 percent took in 7.75 percent of all income in the United States, excluding the capital gains from buying and selling stock and other assets. The comparable top 1 percent share in 2008, as detailed by new research by economist Emmanuel Saez: 17.67 percent.
A quick update on avarice in America and beyond: America’s banks pay a bailout bonus penalty, in Britain! . . . Does the philanthropy of the rich help mitigate the poverty of the poor? . . . An heir to the Mickey Mouse fortune wants the United States to tax the mega wealthy . . . The nation with the worst tax loophole?
Top media outlets and business researchers annually release compensation surveys that detail executive pay levels over the preceding year. These surveys seldom sample the same corporations — or measure pay the exact same way — and, consequently, almost always generate somewhat different results. We sum up the latest top national and regional survey results here.