Veteran labor journalist and Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow Sam Pizzigati co-edits Inequality.org, the Institute’s weekly newsletter on our great divides. He also contributes a regular column to OtherWords, the IPS national nonprofit editorial service.

Sam, now retired from the labor movement, spent two decades directing the publishing program at America’s largest union, the 2.8-million-member National Education Association, and before that edited the national publications of three other U.S. trade unions.

Sam’s own writing has revolved around economic inequality since the early 1990s. His op-eds on income and wealth concentration have appeared in periodicals all around the world, from the New York Times to Le Monde Diplomatique.

Sam has authored four books and co-edited two others. His 2004 book, Greed and Good: Understanding the Inequality that Limits Our Lives, won an “outstanding title” honor from the American Library Association’s book review journal. His 2012 title, The Rich Don’t Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970, explores how average Americans ended the nation’s original Gilded Age. Sam’s most recent book, The Case for a Maximum Wage, offers a politically plausible path toward ending that Gilded Age’s second coming.

Latest

Why Do Cars Kill More People in Unequal Nations?

The dynamics of inequality have left our highways and byways more dangerous.

What Billionaires Really Love About Hard Work: Talking About It.

Billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is just the latest deep pocket to laud how much he personally labors.

A Silicon Valley Life Lesson: Money that ‘Clumps’ Crushes

A new civic group report is calling living conditions ‘harsh’ in California’s high-tech hotspot.

Living in Inequality, Dying in Despair

U.S. life expectancy is up, but we still lag behind other developed countries. As the world’s most unequal developed nation, we shouldn’t be surprised.

Trump Claims Credit for Life Expectancy Rise, Introduces Medicaid Cutback

U.S. life expectancy rose for the first time in four years because of a drop in opioid overdose deaths. Now Trump, who claims credit, wants to cut Medicaid.

From the UN, New Ammo for Egalitarians

The United Nations might be fading, but this new report deserves a bright spotlight.

Trump’s EPA Is a Huge Cancer Risk

Industry-friendly regulators are letting chemical companies flood the country with toxins. It should be a scandal.

The Evolution of ‘Davos Man’ into Trump Fan

With everything from tax cuts to deregulation, the president has made himself indispensable to the world’s mega rich.

Braggadocio in the White House, Carcinogens in Our Neighborhoods

In Trump America, science no match for ‘free market’ fundamentalists and CEOs chasing windfalls.

Credit Cards Are Making Us Lots More Unequal

With every purchase, those credit cards in our wallets are reinforcing a rich people-friendly America.

Are America’s Rich Getting Tired of Winning Yet?

New stats from economist Gabriel Zucman dramatize how spectacularly lucrative the last half-century has been for America’s wealthiest.

McKinsey, ICE, and CEO Pay’s Most Obvious Contradiction

The consultants are coming, and they know just what the powerful want.

Football without Billionaires? Why Not?

Fed-up sports fans are stirring, and progressive politicians worldwide are beginning to take notice.

Making Sense of the Latest IRS Income Stats

To understand how wide our economic divide has become, a little imagination can help.

Putting the Brakes on Corporate America’s Inequality Engine

The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act, landmark new legislation before Congress, links corporate taxes to the CEO-worker pay divide.

Michael Bloomberg Could Buy the White House to Kill a Wealth Tax

A six billion-dollar presidential campaign by Michael Bloomberg would pay for itself in two years if it would stop a wealth tax.

Michael Bloomberg Bought Gracie Mansion. Could He Buy the White House?

With personal fortunes worth dozens of billions, modern American deep pockets can afford one of just about everything.

It’s time for a Conquest Against CEO Pay

In 2018, fifty publicly traded U.S. corporations paid their CEOs more than 1,000 times what they paid their median workers.

Inequality and the Iron Law of Decaying Public Services

The fires ravaging California offer yet another reason to fear our grand economic divides.

How Much in ‘Inequality Tax’ Are You Paying?

The hidden burden America’s top-heavy distribution of income and wealth places on people of modest means.