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

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Their relentless rush to hit the pay jackpot is fueling the calamities that confront us.

For a Racism-Free 22nd Century, We Need a Billionaire-Free 21st

The dead hand of gran fortunes past is still poisoning our present.

The Looming New Amityville Horror

One of the nation’s largest middle-class counties faces a huge hit on public school budgets as the super rich get set to frolic in the summertime surf.

‘Failed State’ Status Here We Come?

Societies that tolerate deep divides in income and wealth invite pandemic disasters.

The Inefficient and Incredibly Lucrative Chase for a Coronavirus Vaccine

Our hottest biotech firm hasn’t yet manufactured an antidote to COVID-19. Still, the company has manufactured three billionaires.

Elon Musk and the Billionaire War on Public Health

The billionaire Tesla CEO made hundreds of millions more by illegally forcing his employees back to work in a pandemic.

Civil Disobedience, Billionaire-Style

Automaker mogul Elon Musk defends his ‘freedom’ to endanger the lives of his workers.

America’s Biggest CEOs Last Year Said They Cared About Us All. They Lied.

America’s corporate dividend cascade is revealing the emptiness of the top exec pledge to value workers, not just shareholders.

Slaughterhouses Aren’t Just for Cattle, Hogs, and Poultry Anymore. Add People.

A powerful industry is making workers choose between their lives and their jobs.

Shed No Tears for CEOs with Sinking Share Prices

In today’s corporate pay environment, even a global pandemic can’t deny chief executives their windfalls.

If the Rich Trust in Hydroxychloroquine, Should We?

In deeply unequal societies, figuring out who to believe will always be a challenge.

Millions Left Jobless By Coronavirus Get Extra $600 a Week

The wealthy argue safety net programs create an incentive for folks to stop working. They’re wrong, but especially so during pandemics like the coronavirus.

Bailing Out the Rich — Again

In a deeply unequal America, our democracy clearly has a problem legislating emergency relief without further enriching the already rich.

Why CEO Pay Belongs at the Center of the Coronavirus Bailout Debate

The fact that so many Americans are facing dire circumstances now is a direct result of the exploitation economy and we should take this opportunity to change it.

How to Wage War, FDR-Style, on Our Pandemic

Legislators proposing major stimulus packages must ensure bailout dollars are funneled to workers, not executives or shareholders.

Does the Coronavirus Crisis Have to End with a Wealthier Wealthy?

This time around, let’s use the power of the public purse to reduce inequality.

I Have an Issue with How Exit Polls Treat Issues

Polling questions that isolate ‘inequality’ do no justice to the social ills that ail us.

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.