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 cofounder 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
 |
Views Friday, June 19, 2020 White Supremacy Is the Pre-existing Condition On June 19th, people across the United States will mark the anniversary of the emancipation of the last enslaved people in the United States by taking to the streets to demand Black Lives Matter. Behind the protests over police violence are the painful racial disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic... Read more |
 |
Views Monday, May 04, 2020 Time for an Emergency Charity Stimulus We are living through a time of unprecedented challenges: a major public health crisis and a deepening recession. Congress has already authorized trillions in stimulus funds. But millions of Americans are still relying on the support of local nonprofits such as food banks and human services. These... Read more |
 |
Views Thursday, April 23, 2020 U.S. Billionaire Wealth Surges as Covid-19 Pandemic Worsens As the pandemic-fueled U.S. unemployment rate approaches 15 percent, America’s billionaire class is experiencing a wealth surge, according to a new Institute for Policy Studies report that I co-authored with Omar Ocampo and Sophia Paslaski, Billionaire Bonanza 2020. Between March 18th and April... Read more |
 |
Views Tuesday, April 14, 2020 A Film Recommendation in Stay-at-Home Times: 'Sorry We Missed You' Director Ken Loach has done it again. “Sorry We Missed You” is a family drama infused with a searing look at life in the “gig economy” with a frayed social safety net. Like his previous film, “I, Daniel Blake,” this film is about working class people maintaining their dignity and humanity in the... Read more |
 |
Views Monday, April 13, 2020 Taxes Paid By Billionaires Decreased 79 Percent Since 1980, as Percentage of Their Wealth Conventional economic wisdom says a time of crisis is not the moment to enact tax increases. But, as Eric Toder at the Tax Policy Center recently pointed out: “[Tax experts] can begin to think of the time after the pandemic passes and how government should respond to massive increases in the public... Read more |
 |
Views Tuesday, February 25, 2020 The U.S. Would Be Better Off With Fewer Billionaires When folks say that billionaires shouldn't exist, it's nothing personal. Some billionaires are nice enough. Some spend generously on philanthropy. That all sounds great. But we don't need more do-gooder billionaires that give to charity—we need fewer billionaires. The problem is having an entire... Read more |
 |
Views Tuesday, January 28, 2020 Luanda Leaks and the Global Wealth Defense Industry Growing global scrutiny is focused on Isabel de Santos, the wealthiest woman in Africa, who is accused of using her position to extract hundreds of millions—if not billions—of dollars in wealth for personal gain. Dos Santos, daughter of Angola's autocratic leader from 1979 until 2017, allegedly... Read more |
 |
Views Wednesday, September 04, 2019 Tax the Rich Before the Rest Presidential candidates should take a pledge: The middle class should not pay one dollar more in new taxes until the super-rich pay their fair share. Already candidates are outlining ambitious programs to improve health care, combat climate change, and address the opioid crisis — and trying to... Read more |
 |
Views Monday, July 01, 2019 Bernie Sanders Is Right: 3 Billionaires Really Do Have More Wealth Than Half of America The wealthiest 3 billionaires in the U.S. – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the U.S. population combined. Those were the first words spoken at last week’s 2020 Democratic Debate, citing a wealth inequality study by the Institute for Policy... Read more |
 |
Views Tuesday, June 04, 2019 Business School Graduates—Don’t Work for Billionaires Congratulations, graduates, on your hard work over the last several years. By now, though, you’re surely feeling pressure about your next steps. You may have debt, parents that made big sacrifices, or well-off families that expect you to live like them. You may feel pressure to take a job that... Read more |