wealth inequality – American Delusions

Recently Noted – Robert Reich: how we got into this mess and how we get out of it

December 29, 2017 Comments Off

Recently Noted – Robert Reich: how we got into this mess and how we get out of it This is a good description of how we got into our current mess; the way out is weaker. Nevertheless, well worth the six minute view. A few thoughts To be clear the --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted: World Inequality Report 2018 – findings and policies

December 14, 2017 Comments Off

Inequality in the World – findings Inequality in wealth and income is not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless, recent decades in the US, and as this new report World Inequality Report 2018 shows, the world has seen a real explosion in inequality. As shown in the charts below the US is --->> read more -->>

Trump Republican Policy Crimes (some only attempted at the moment)

November 30, 2017 Comments Off

Trump – Republican Positions and Crimes (some just attempted) against the poor, working and middle class Not to be obsessive, but the current Trump Republicans effort to cram their bill to pay back their corporate and rich supporters with giant tax breaks has me frothing a bit. I wrote down --->> read more -->>

Fragmentation and Isolation in the US Economy – Distressed Communities Index

September 29, 2017 Comments Off

It is widely known that the bottom 80% of the US population has been stuck in neutral or gone backwards in terms of income and wealth over the last 45 years. But even this woeful state of affairs is not distributed evenly across the country. A new analysis of the --->> read more -->>

Affirmative Action For Whites – began in the 1930s

July 17, 2017 Comments Off

Affirmative Action For Whites – began in the 1930s As noted here in “Creating Segregated America in the 20th Century – government in action” segregated America didn’t happen by chance nor by choice of the victims. Consistent white supremacist government action supported by private institutions created the segregation that persists --->> read more -->>

Trump’s Innovations in Governing

May 15, 2017 Comments Off

The Plutocrats Have Occupied the White House and Executive Branch It has been a fact of American life for decades that the rich and corporations control our political system. But this control has been exercised always one arms length removed from the actual levers of power. They have had to be --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – about racism

May 12, 2017 Comments Off

from the New York Times: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality An enormous entitlement in the tax code props up home prices — and overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy and the upper middle class. By MATTHEW DESMOND MAY 9, 2017 Read the article >>>>>>

Obama, Wall St. and Big Money

May 8, 2017 Comments Off

Edited 5/9/2017 (Originally published as “Obama and the Future of the Democratic Party”) President Obama achieved some remarkable things during his eight years. Action on income and wealth inequality were not among them. He surrounded himself, especially on the economic front, with people who had direct connections to Wall St. --->> read more -->>

Diversity and Identity Politics Is A Deadend

March 1, 2017 Comments Off

Progressives have to declare class war as a central strategy. Otherwise we will all be sitting at the dinner table basking in our glorious diversity with nothing to eat. For many good reasons identity and diversity have dominated our politics for decades. Progressives celebrate its expansion and Republicans and their --->> read more -->>

economy

Park Avenue and How We Got There

January 22, 2017 Comments Off

“There” is our current situation in which our government has been bought by the rich and corporations, over 80% of the population has not had a pay raise in 40 years and the public sphere, schools, parks, our infrastructure, really anything not behind the gated walls of private wealth, is --->> read more -->>

Economic Inequality – Does It Matter?

May 9, 2012 Comments Off

It is fairly widely known that income and wealth inequality in the US is as high or higher than at any time except perhaps the Robber Baron period at the end of the 19th century. Lots of articles and books explain how this has come about over the last 30 --->> read more -->>