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

Will Fanboys for Grand Fortune Ever Flame Out?

Not likely. Our super rich need the fog they create.

Another Colossal Waste of Our Society’s Talents and Skills

Our richest can now fly halfway round the world with their circadian rhythms totally intact.

Your Awful Office Meetings Are Making CEOs Money

Getting a grip on Corporate America’s structural greed.

America’s Merchants of Death Then — and Now

More Afghan-like tragedies will be inevitable until we squeeze the personal profit out of prepping for war.

The Climate Stat We Can’t Afford to Overlook: CEO Pay

If top U.S. corporate execs are still pocketing jackpots a decade from now, our environment has no shot.

A China-U.S. Face-Off Worth Cheering, Not Fearing

Instead of itching for a new Cold War, our superpowers ought to be itching for greater equality — on both sides of the Pacific.

America’s Billionaires: Borrowing Their Way to Ever More Fabulous Fortunes

The great painter Diego Rivera would not appreciate what our richest are using for collateral.

Our Billionaires Are Blasting Off. Good Riddance!

Could space become the ‘final frontier’ in the struggle for a more equal world?

What Happens Economically When Wealth Tilts to the Top?

Most of us see immoral ugliness wherever wealth concentrates. Much more lurks that we need to see.

An Inequality Even Conservative Justices Can’t Swallow

A unanimous Supreme Court throws a monkey-wrench into a college sports scene that’s minting mega millionaires.

Can We Conquer Our Grand Dynastic Family Fortunes?

We most certainly can. We have history on our side.

Living Ever Larger in the Lap of Luxury

The rich have become so rich that just selling to the rich can make you the world’s richest person.

To Grow Our Economic Pie, Cut More Equal Slices

Redistributing wealth downward, new calculations suggest, can make societies richer.

The Justice McDonald’s Workers Seek Workers at Spain’s Mondragón Have Found

We don’t have to organize our economy around enterprises that pay CEOs over 1,000 times what workers make.

Can We Get a Vaccine for the Greed Pandemic?

The avarice virus escaped decades ago from corporate boardrooms. We can beat it.

Executive Excess 2021

Low-Wage Workers Lost Hours, Jobs, and Lives. Their Employers Bent the Rules — To Pump up CEO Paychecks.

Bill, Melinda, and the Burden of Grand Fortune

We can’t buy happiness, but greater equality could make it more likely.

President Biden’s Tax-the-Rich Plan: Just How Bold?

A little history can help us with the answer.

The Billionaires Who Couldn’t Kick Straight

America’s super rich and their European pals have failed spectacularly in a scheme to kill global football’s most egalitarian traditions.

What Can We Do to Start Civilizing Our Richest?

Worldwide, ever more of us are realizing we need a ceiling on what our greediest can grab.