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

College Football Coaches Making $25,000 a Day? Let’s Sideline This Lunacy!

The gridiron game has a penalty for illegal holding. We need one for hoarding.

Worshiping Markets, Genuflecting to Grand Fortune

Today’s ‘utopians’ have reserved heaven on Earth for the richest among us.

Tornados Can Kill. So Can Amazon’s Business Model.

How long will we tolerate the corporate executive ‘risk taking’ that puts only workers at real risk?

Against Plutocrats, Platitudes — About Democracy — Will Always Be Pitiful

The Biden administration’s democracy initiative is missing the all-important inequality connection.

Might Starbucks Soon Start Sharing the Bucks?

Baristas in Buffalo are mounting the coffee giant’s most significant union challenge yet.

What’s That ‘Surtax’ Doing in Build Back Better?

Congress may soon be delivering America’s awesomely affluent an unpleasant tax-time surprise.

Our New Art ‘Appreciation,’ Billionaire-Style

Fine art has never been more financially lucrative — or less central to our culture.

Should Rich People Get a Free Pass at Tax Time?

We’re finally debating that question. Let’s not miss our opportunity.

Can We Automate Inequality Out of Automation?

We don’t have to let Big Tech define our technological future.

Can Billionaires Save the World?

Those shiny utopias America’s super rich peddle are dulling our democracy.

Forget the Huddled Masses. Bring Us Billionaires.

The land of the free and the home of the brave has become a tax haven for the vile and the vicious.

The Least Sympathetic People in the Entire World?

They just may be the super rich who’ve bought mega-million condos in midtown Manhattan’s now infamous needle towers.

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.