The Roots of Economic Inequality and the Racial Wealth Divide

The U.S. is in a moment of extreme inequality—of wealth, income, and opportunity. Disparities are accentuated on racial and ethnic lines. Wealth and income are going up for a tiny fraction of the population, while wages for working- and middle-class families have stagnated. One out of five households today has zero or negative net worth. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, joined Paul Peppis of the Oregon Humanities Center, to discuss the roots of economic inequality and the racial wealth divide in the United States, and offers solutions that would reverse the concentration of wealth and power.