Sam Pizzigati
Sam Pizzigati co-edits Inequality.org. His recent books include: "The Case for a Maximum Wage" (2018) and "The Rich Don't Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970" (2012).
Articles by this author
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Views Sunday, August 19, 2018 The Market Made Them Do It Back in 1999, near the dizzying height of the dot.com boom, no executive in Corporate America personified the soaring pay packages of America’s CEOs more than Jack Welch, the chief exec at General Electric. Welch took home $75 million that year. What explained the enormity of that compensation?... Read more |
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Views Friday, July 27, 2018 Creating Pension Plan Chaos for Teachers, Firefighters, and Cops Single butterfly flapping its wings, chaos theory tells us, can wreak social havoc. Those flaps could alter the course of a tornado two weeks later. A big deal if your home happens to be in that tornado’s new course. Now if a single butterfly could wreak such havoc, imagine the damage a few flaps... Read more |
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Views Monday, July 16, 2018 A Sweet New Century for America’s Most Privileged The United States ended the 20th century on a roll — for the rich. Between 1973 and 2000, the nation’s most prosperous 1 percent tripled their incomes, after taking inflation into account. The even more prosperous top tenth of that 1 percent did quite a bit better. Their incomes more than... Read more |
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Views Monday, July 02, 2018 Income Distribution For Minimum Decency, a Maximum Wage In the United States today, a just-released Federal Reserve report informs us , over a fifth of the nation’s families simply cannot afford to “pay all of their current month’s bills in full.” Over a quarter of families, the report goes on, skip “necessary medical care” because they can’t afford the... Read more |
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Views Sunday, June 10, 2018 Wage Theft: To Fight the Crime, Attack the Motive The American economy rests ultimately on trust, a mutual understanding between employers and employees that each side, in the end, will behave honorably. A fair day’s wage, as the classic formulation puts it, for a fair day’s work. "These corporate pillars are committing their thievery on many... Read more |
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Views Monday, June 04, 2018 For Minimum Decency, A Maximum Wage In the United States today, a just-released Federal Reserve report informs us , over a fifth of the nation’s families simply cannot afford to “pay all of their current month’s bills in full.” Over a quarter of families, the report goes on, skip “necessary medical care” because they can’t afford the... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, May 30, 2018 U.S. CEOs Are World’s Best – For Themselves No single statistic, in isolation, tells us particularly much. Numbers only gain real meaning when we compare them. Take, for instance, the figure for the increase in CEO pay last year at major American corporations. A statistic for this increase — 6.4 percent — appears in the just-released 2018... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, April 17, 2018 Why Should We Tax the Rich? The orthodoxy that dominates today’s Republican Party — and the ranks of “business-friendly” Democrats — rests on a simple approach to economic policy. Let’s be nice, this orthodoxy holds, to rich people. Let’s be particularly nice at tax time. Let’s keep taxes on rich people, conservatives advise... Read more |
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Views Sunday, April 01, 2018 A Bigger Welcome Mat for America’s Tax Evaders Every nation levies taxes. Some nations levy well. In these admirable nations, tax systems spread the tax burden fairly. Those who can readily afford to pay more in taxes do pay more. Other nations tax poorly. They set low tax rates on high incomes. Officials in these nations let their wealthiest... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, March 21, 2018 Billionaires Won’t Save the World — Just Look at Elon Musk Will Mars save humanity? Or will our savior be billionaire Elon Musk? Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, humbly believes we don’t have to choose. Mars will save us, he promises, and Musk himself will engineer this Mars miracle. In 2019, Musk claims, SpaceX will start making short trips to Mars. By... Read more |