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

Can an Economic Stat Help Narrow Our Grand Economic Divide?

Egalitarian-minded economics are pushing for a ‘GDP 2.0’ — and getting some lawmaker help.

Have Researchers Just Hit an Inequality Trifecta?

Three new sets of stats help us understand why America’s 400 richest have never been richer.

Inequality Is Literally Killing Us

Again and again, studies show that the richer wealthy Americans become, the shorter the rest of us live.

The Key to Distributing Wealth More Equitably

We only build and sustain more equal societies when we confront the economic dynamics that generate inequality in the first place.

Paying the Boss 1,000 Times More Than a Worker Encourages Reckless Corporate Behavior

Sentiment is building to tax excessive CEO pay at public companies

Concentrated Wealth and the Rise of the Limitarian

Letting small slivers of a population amass as much wealth as they can grab might not be such a hot idea after all.

The GM Strike: A Century of Context

In deeply unequal societies, real gains for working people never come easy.

Concentrated Wealth Kills

Two new reports out of Washington trace our growing economic divide and the high price we pay, in dollars and lives, for letting that divide fester.

Big Pharma to Pay for Opioid Crisis, But What Happens to the Money?

Big Tobacco settlements didn’t help those in need. Let’s ensure opioid settlements actually go toward helping impacted people and communities.

Reflections on the Opioid Epidemic

What we can do to stop America’s next horrific eruption of corporate greed?

Out of Ottawa, Some Deflating New Stats on Life in the World’s Richest Nation

An innovative binational analysis details how plutocracy is squeezing low and middle income Americans.

Can Inequality Be Hardwired into Our DNA?

We need more than a moratorium on making inheritable edits in our genetic code. We need a moratorium on people getting rich off of editing our genes.

A Lesson from West Africa, a Global Inequality Ground Zero

To end poverty at the bottom of our economic orders, we need to stop wealth from concentrating at the top.

A Tale of Two Druglords

One gets life behind bars, the other retires into luxury. Guess which one wreaked more havoc.

Behold the 21st-Century Penthouse: Peak Decadence?

From the summit of our new ‘needle towers,’ the ultra rich can look but never really see.

A Deep Data Crunch, a New Atlas of Inequality

Economic segregation divides much more than the neighborhoods where we live.

Does a Presidential Candidate Who Thinks Billionaires Can Be ‘Deserving’ Deserve To Be President?

A clear majority of candidates for the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination seem to have no problem with the presence of grand private fortunes.

Gloria Vanderbilt, Taxes, and Grand Fortune

The Vanderbilts, once America’s richest family, have become a handy punching bag for the guardians of our new Gilded Age.

Decent, Secure Housing Is a Basic Human Right

New York’s latest housing legislation turns the tables on the landlord class, offering protections for renters.