Chuck Collins
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org, and is author of the new book, "Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good." He is co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, recently merged with the Patriotic Millionaires. He is co-author of "99 to 1: The Moral Measure of the Economy" and, with Bill Gates Sr., of "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes."
Articles by this author
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Views Monday, March 01, 2021 COVID-19 Has Exacerbated Extreme Levels of Inequality. It’s Time for a Billionaire Wealth Tax What should good societies do when a wealthy few reap enormous financial windfalls during a global pandemic? While millions lost their lives, livelihoods, health and wealth, the world’s billionaires and super-rich prospered. According to research from Americans for TaxFairness and the Institute for... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, February 23, 2021 Nomadland: The Lifetime Impacts of Gender-Bias in Wages If you grew up agitated that "women earn 59 cents on the dollar," for the same work as men, there’s a movie for you. At the beginning of the new film, Nomadland , one of the characters tells Fern, the lead character played beautifully by Frances McDormand: "My social security check is $550. How am... Read more |
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Views Saturday, February 13, 2021 Taxes on the Rich: One-Sixth of What They Used to Be America hasn’t stopped taxing its wealthiest citizens entirely. But that’s where we’re headed. According to a new IPS briefing paper , the richest .01 percent of Americans, about 33,000 lucky souls today, now pay just one-sixth of what they used to pay in tax, when measured as a percentage of their... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, February 03, 2021 The Real Winners of Pandemic Super Bowl 2021? The Sports Owners Raking in Billions We won’t know the winner of this year’s Super Bowl till Sunday, but we already know the big winners in our COVID-ravaged economy include dozens of billionaire sports barons. On the eve of the big game, and after 10-plus months of the pandemic, 64 billionaire owners of major league sports franchises... Read more |
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Views Monday, January 11, 2021 Trump's Top Ten Billionaire Enablers We've heard plenty about the GOP members of Congress and Trump political appointees who have “enabled” Donald Trump over these four years, failing to act to stem his excesses. But what about the billionaire donors to Trump’s campaign and his victory PACs? Especially those who gave substantial... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, December 15, 2020 MacKenzie Scott’s Bold and Direct Giving Puts Shame to the Billionaire Class and Their Perpetual Private Foundations In her second move as a billionaire philanthropist, MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos) has announced $4.2 billion in gifts to 384 organizations, mostly unrestricted grants to front-line charities addressing the needs of low-income people during the pandemic. Writing in a post on Medium , Scott... Read more |
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Views Thursday, November 26, 2020 It's a Billionaire's Thanksgiving: Wealth of Richest Surges Past $1 Trillion Since Pandemic Hit Tuesday, November 24, as the Dow crossed the 30,000 mark, the wealth of 650 U.S. billionaires approached a total of $4 trillion, with $1 trillion in growth since March 2020. Of this group, 29 billionaires have seen their wealth double since March 2020. There are 36 additional billionaires in the U... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, November 24, 2020 Facing Holiday Rush, Frontlines Retail Workers Urge Billionaire Bosses to Share the Wealth This Black Friday and Cyber Monday, frontline essential workers will be hustling to help holiday shoppers — while also fighting for dignity, hazard pay, and other protections as Covid-19 infection rates spike again in many regions. Rina Cummings, who works at the JFK8 Amazon Warehouse on Staten... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, November 18, 2020 Why We Must Protect Essential Workers From Billionaire Pandemic Profiteers There are few scenes more sordid than the surging wealth gains of the world's billionaire class during an unprecedented pandemic when millions have lost their lives, health, wealth and livelihoods. As the country heads into another wave of Covid-19 infections, billionaires, and corporations should... Read more |
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Views Thursday, October 01, 2020 You Paid More Taxes Than Donald Trump My daughter, a librarian in Tucson, paid more taxes in 2017 than Donald Trump. So did my neighbor Rita, a teacher, and her son Tony, who stocks grocery shelves in Leland, Michigan I also pay more in taxes than the president of the United States. And, probably, so do you. We now understand why Trump... Read more |