Podcasts about how wealth inequality

Chuck Collins’ first job out of college was to work with mobile homeowners in New England to help them organize and buy their parks as resident-owned cooperatives, to escape the cycle of ever-rising rents. While working in Western Massachusetts with a group of 30 mobile homeowners struggling to raise the necessary resources, Chuck was holding on to a “dirty little secret”: as the great-grandson of the Chicago meatpacker Oscar Mayer (an iconic brand in the US renowned for its catchy advertising jingles and Weinermobile), Chuck, still pimply faced at the time, was a multi-millionaire who single-handedly could write a check to make it possible for the 30 families to buy the park – with only a negligible impact on his personal finances. Chuck was seriously (and silently) considering doing just that, when the group gifted him something much more valuable: they taught him the power of solidarity and community. At that moment, they heroically dug deeper and supported one another (oftentimes anonymously) to come up with the necessary down payment in a way that preserved the dignity of each. At age 26, this powerful experience defined Chuck’s path. Realizing that “there was no rationale that could justify this disparity” whereby his inherited wealth was increasing through no sweat of his own, but wages were going down for so many, he decided to give away his wealth. “I wrote my parents a letter thanking them for the tremendous opportunities this wealth made possible. And I explained that while having the money was a boost in helping pay for my education, it was now a barrier to my making my own way in the world. I intended to ‘pass the wealth on.’” Chuck signed the paperwork to transfer all the funds in his name to four grant-making foundations, maintaining no financial cushion or “rainy day” fund for himself. That this decision was not a whimsical flight of idealistic fancy has been born out over the decades: Chuck has been working diligently and strategically against economic inequality for his entire adult life. Decades after he gave away his wealth, Chuck wrote, “I have no regrets. If anything, I feel liberated. My decision enabled me to live my life more aligned to my values. It opened up a source of energy.” Chuck is a storyteller, writer, researcher, and campaigner working to reverse the extreme inequalities of wealth and power – and heal the social and ecological harms resulting from societal inequities. Since 2006, he has been Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His most recent book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions (Polity Books) examines the global hidden wealth system and the role of enablers and gatekeepers, such as tax attorneys, wealth managers, and family offices. In a YES Magazine article about wealth advisors that “help the rich let go,” Collins urged families to redirect “their wealth to heal the harms created by the initial extraction of that wealth.” Collins worked to brief foreign reporters about US wealth hiding systems in advance of the recent publication of the Pandora Papers. He has worked since 1999 on various efforts to organize wealthy people to advocate for progressive tax policies and preserve the federal estate tax, the only tax on inherited wealth. He was co-author, with Bill Gates Sr., of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Wealth (Beacon Press). His perspectives about wealth and inheritance are discussed in his popular book, Born on Third Base (Chelsea Green). He has been featured in many interviews, including an NPR Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross and in Sun Magazine. Chuck is co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-income households and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation. This network merged in 2015 with the Patriotic Millionaires, a national network of high net worth individuals advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy, a living wage, and campaign finance reform. Between 1983 and 1992, Collins worked for the Institute for Community Economics, helping grassroots housing cooperatives and community land trusts built and preserve affordable housing. Thereafter, from 1993 to 2006, he worked on issues of tax fairness and inequality, co-founding United for a Fair Economy. Currently living near Brattleboro, Vermont, Collins is co-author of several reports including “The Road To Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide is Hollowing Out America’s Middle Class,” “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us” and “Gilded Giving: Top Heavy Philanthropy in an Age of Extreme Inequality.” Other books include: Is Inequality in America Irreversible? (published by the Oxford, UK-based Polity Press); and 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It. He is co-author with Mary Wright of The Moral Measure of the Economy, a book about Christian ethics and economic life. Please join us in conversation with this principled advocate for justice and equality who has uniquely walked – and is walking – his talk!

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here for @KGNU (Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, ) for #ItsTheEconomy with , senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. There, he directs the Program on . Collins latest book is He has written a number of other books including '99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It', and 'Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality', 'Bringing Wealth Home', and 'Committing to the Common Good'. He has also written numerous reports about billionaire wealth during the pandemic. Discussion in this latest interview for @KGNU focuses on getting the Biden Infrastructure Bill paid for in a way that is also combined with tackling the egregious crisis of inequality in the United States. This is is so serious now, says Collins, that President Joe Biden is declaiming that, “It’s time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the middle out, not the top down.” In recent speeches promoting his Infrastructure Bill and his American Jobs Plan, President Biden said, “I’m proposing a plan for the nation that rewards work, not just rewards wealth.” In admitting that our current system rewards wealth, President Biden revealed what American financial and political elites have known for decades: that we do NOT live in a meritocracy. Instead, we live in a nation where you have to be rich to get richer. 

Most of us know that the Covid-19 pandemic has devastated the US economy. Between March 18 and June 25, over 46 million people filed for unemployment. In that same period, however, U.S. billionaire wealth surged over $600 billion. At least eight billionaires have seen their wealth grow by more than $1 billion this year. I talk about this with CHUCK COLLINS, who directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-edits Inequality.org. His books include 99 TO 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It; and BORN ON THIRD BASE.

Inequality is getting worse. Most of us know that the Covid-19 pandemic has devastated the US economy. Between March 18 and June 25, over 46 million people filed for unemployment. In that same period, however, U.S. billionaire wealth surged over $600 billion. At least eight billionaires have seen their wealth grow by more than $1 billion this year. I talk about this with CHUCK COLLINS, who directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-edits Inequality.org. His books include 99 TO 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It; and BORN ON THIRD BASE.

Panama Papers’ and the Shadow World of Finance by MFlowers The release of the ‘Panama Papers’ reveal the secret world of shell companies used by the rich to hide their wealth and avoid paying taxes on it. While it appears that the release of information was intended as a tool to demonize Russian President Vladimir Putin, it has backfired and instead led to a probing of who in the US is involved in this type of scheme. McClatchy News is publishing investigative pieces revealing the same activity taking place in states such as Nevada and Wyoming. The list of people involved connects directly to government figures such as US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. It has also led to massive upheaval in Iceland where protesters are calling for the resignation of the government and new elections. We explore what’s going on with James Henry of the Tax Justice Network and Chuck Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies.   Relevant articles and websites: US Scolds Others about Offshores, but Looks Other Way at Home by Kevin Hall and Marisa Taylor The Price of Offshore Revisited by the Tax Justice Network Panama Papers Expose the Hidden Wealth of the World’s Super Rich by Chuck Collins Tax Justice Network The FACT Coalition Inequality.org We’re Not Broke Movie Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson   Guests: James Shelburne Henry is a U.S. economist, attorney, and investigative journalist who has written extensively about global banking, debt crises, tax havens and economic development. In the corporate world, Henry served as Chief Economist, McKinsey & Co. (NYC global h.q.); VP Strategy, IBM/Lotus Development Corporation (Cambridge), Manager, Business Development, the Chairman’s Office (Jack Welch), GE (Fairfield), and senior consultant Monitor Group,the international consulting firm. As Managing Director of Sag Harbor Group, a strategy consulting firm, his clients have included such enterprises as ABB, Allen & Co., AT&T, AT Kearney, Calvert Fund, Ce-mex, ChinaTrust, the Scotland Yard/FBI Task Force on Caribbean Havens, IBM/Lotus, Intel, Interwise, Lucent, Merrill Lynch, South Africa Telkom, Rockefeller Foundation, the Swedish Power Board, TransAlta, UBS Warburg, Volvo, and Monitor Company. A member of the New York Bar, he has served as a pro bono cooperating attorney for the NYCLU on First Amendment issues, and as Vice President, New York Civil Liberties Union – Suffolk County. He is author of the acclaimed investigative economics book The Blood Bankers, and his articles and citations have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Nation, The Conference Board, The Washington Post, Harpers, Fortune, Jornal do Brasil, The Manila Chronicle, La Nacion, and many others.   Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and directs IPS’s Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is an expert on U.S. inequality and author of several books, including 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It. He is co-author with Bill Gates Sr. of Wealth and Our Commonwealth, (Beacon Press, 2003), a case for taxing inherited fortunes. He is co-author with Mary Wright of The Moral Measure of the Economy, a book about Christian ethics and economic life. He is co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-income households and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation. This network merged in 2015 with the Patriotic Millionaires. In 1995, he co-founded United for a Fair Economy (UFE) to raise the profile of the inequality issue and support popular education and organizing efforts to address inequality. He was Executive Director of UFE from 1995-2001 and Program Director until 2005.

Chuck Collins directs the Institute of Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has also co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and Wealth for the Common Good, a network of wealthy individuals who embrace fair taxation to support the broader good. He is also the author of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It and joined Bill Gates, Sr. to co-author Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. I learned about Chuck through David Korten, only to realize that I already had Resilience Circles—another project he is affiliated with—on my list of potential episode themes. At this point you have probably guessed that Chuck and I spent a lot of time talking about wealth and class, but it's hard to cover those issues without digging into assumptions about human nature. Are we individualistic and selfish? Social and communal? All of the above? Chuck gives us a glimpse into how he pitches economic equality to the 1%, a pitch that involves the importance of the social and ecological commons while recognizing the importance of individual determination. Education makes an appearance and Chuck stresses that, in addition to the social/civic education Lawrence Torcello discussed, we need to remember that we are embedded in an ecological system. Resilience Circles make a brief appearance and new economies come up towards the end of the conversation. You'll probably notice more commonalities and contrasts with plenty of other thinkers. Obviously there are a fair number of similarities between Chuck and David Korten, though our conversations focused on very different themes. Equally interesting, how do Chuck's assertions about human nature and brain science pair with Colin Camerer? Priscilla Grim and Cameron Whitten have discussed class without sharing the environmental concerns of other thinkers in the project, but Chuck suggests that an awareness of the ecological commons is key to encouraging a robust sense of the social commons. It is easy to find contrasts between Chuck and libertarian-leaning thinkers like Max More and Ariel Waldman, but he also shares their appreciation of individual agency.

Chuck Collins directs the Institute of Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has also co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and Wealth for the Common Good, a network of wealthy individuals who embrace fair taxation to support the broader good. He is also the author of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It and joined Bill Gates, Sr. to co-author Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. I learned about Chuck through David Korten, only to realize that I already had Resilience Circles—another project he is affiliated with—on my list of potential episode themes. At this point you have probably guessed that Chuck and I spent a lot of time talking about wealth and class, but it's hard to cover those issues without digging into assumptions about human nature. Are we individualistic and selfish? Social and communal? All of the above? Chuck gives us a glimpse into how he pitches economic equality to the 1%, a pitch that involves the importance of the social and ecological commons while recognizing the importance of individual determination. Education makes an appearance and Chuck stresses that, in addition to the social/civic education Lawrence Torcello discussed, we need to remember that we are embedded in an ecological system. Resilience Circles make a brief appearance and new economies come up towards the end of the conversation. You'll probably notice more commonalities and contrasts with plenty of other thinkers. Obviously there are a fair number of similarities between Chuck and David Korten, though our conversations focused on very different themes. Equally interesting, how do Chuck's assertions about human nature and brain science pair with Colin Camerer? Priscilla Grim and Cameron Whitten have discussed class without sharing the environmental concerns of other thinkers in the project, but Chuck suggests that an awareness of the ecological commons is key to encouraging a robust sense of the social commons. It is easy to find contrasts between Chuck and libertarian-leaning thinkers like Max More and Ariel Waldman, but he also shares their appreciation of individual agency.

Aired 04/15/12 For over thirty years, you and I have lived through a radical redistribution of wealth -- upward, to a tiny fraction of the population -- as though we're part of a bizarre experiment to see how much inequality a democratic society can tolerate. Finally this past year, as a result of the Great Recession that burst the mortgage/refi/credit card bubble that had allowed too many of us to deny reality, people have woken up and "We are the 99%," the rallying cry of the Occupy movement, has spread far and wide. CHUCK COLLINS has been on the case since at least 1995, when he co-founded United for a Fair Economy to raise the profile of the inequality issue and support efforts to address it. In fact, when he did so, he was one of my first guests on this show and we talked then about the same issues we will talk about today. Chuck's new book, 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It, paints a picture of how disparities in wealth and power play out in America and the world, and identifies the shifts in social values, political power, and economic policy that have led to our current era of extreme inequality. He lays out the destructive cost of inequality on virtually every aspect of society. But Collins believes there's hope and offers proposals for closing the gap, and a guide to many of the groups working toward a society that works for everybody. http://inequality.org/