the deliberate weakening of social protections has produced greater financial and economic insecurity
Joseph E. Stiglitz considers what 40 years of anti-government, low-tax, deregulatory advocacy have wrought around the world.
people suffering from precarity, which means existing without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare ... lack of job security
In sociology and economics, the precariat (/prɪˈkɛəriət/) is a neologism for a social class formed by people suffering from precarity, which means existing without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. The term is a portmanteau merging precarious with proletariat.[1] Unlike the proletariat class of...
蒲公英族（英語：precariat；/prɪˈkɛəriət/)，或譯作「流眾」[1]、「不穩定無產者」[2]、「殆危族」、「飄零族」[3][4]等，在社会学和经济学中，是由飽受不稳定之苦的人组成的階級。蒲公英族是不稳定（precarious）与无产阶级（proletariat）的混成词。 [5][6]...
A growing body of research shows that the corporate rate cut has delivered large gains to top earners but done little for everyone else.
Policymakers and the public should understand that the 2017 Trump tax law was skewed to the rich, was expensive and eroded the U.S. revenue base, and failed to deliver promised economic benefits. A 2025 course correction is needed.
“double damage” inflicted by the wealthiest corporations and individuals who disproportionately contribute to climate breakdown through their outsized carbon emissions and who rob governments of the funding needed to address the fallout from climate breakdown by abusing tax
“Double damage” inflicted by wealthiest corporations and individuals highlights twin crises of climate breakdown and inequality The amount of tax lost every year to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens is on par with the amount of money needed each year to cover the estimated cost of climate-induced loss and damage. In a […]
amount of tax lost every year to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens is on par with the amount of money needed each year to cover the estimated cost of climate-induced loss and damage
The holiday season is upon us, which for the millions of dust-covered board games that have spent the year hibernating in cupboards and cabinets means making the annual pilgrimage to the family dinner table to collect the biscuit crumbs and greasy finger stains they need to sustain themselves for another a year. In honour of […]
"It’s instant replay of the same old crap. The first time they went to jail. The second time, nobody went to jail, but there were some significant financial penalties. And the third time, it was a complete pass that allowed people to get the idea that if you’re big enough and important enough, you can get away with anything. And that, I’m afraid, has permeated the society."
The latest Corruption Diaries episode is out! A new podcast episode every Wednesday: "It’s instant replay of the same old crap. The first time they went to jail. The second time, nobody went to jail,...
their wealth has grown three times faster than the rate of inflation ... The wages of nearly 800 million workers have failed to keep up with inflation and they have lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years, equivalent to nearly a month (25 days) of lost wages for each worker
The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 —at a rate of $14 million per hour— while nearly five billion people have been made poorer, reveals a new Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power. If current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire...
This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else…… through squeezing workers, dodging tax, privatizing the state, and spurring climate breakdown
analysis of World Benchmarking Alliance data on more than 1,600 of the largest corporations worldwide shows that 0.4 percent of them are publicly committed to paying workers a living wage and support a living wage in their value chains
But they’re also funneling power, undermining our democracies ... No corporation or individual should have this much power over our economies and our lives
Bernard Arnault is the world’s second richest man who presides over luxury goods empire LVMH ... He also owns France’s biggest media outlet, Les Échos, as well as Le Parisien
at least 228 of America’s biggest (Fortune 500) corporations — representing more than two-thirds of some 300 companies with political action committees — have given $26.3 million to election deniers during the 2021-2024 election cycles... giant corporations that announced they wouldn’t support election deniers but reversed course include FedEx, which has given the deniers $303,000 since January, 2021. Home Depot, $602,500. Johnson & Johnson, $138,000. McDonald’s, $107,000. UPS, $575,000. Verizon, $250,500. Walmart, $297,000. Wells Fargo, $244,500
They say they want to build public trust and avoid political upheaval, but they’re bankrolling election deniers
Note that these numbers show only the donations that corporations are openly disclosing — not funds they’re channeling through trade associations, super PACs, and dark money groups
And the same companies will be giving millions to the “others side” too. As my dearly departed Mother used to say, “playing both ends against the middle”
In this case, the "other side" is the United States of America
Big money has created a deep cynicism about our democracy, which Trump and election-deniers are exploiting to the hilt. Those of us who care about democracy must do more than vanquish Trumpism. We...
烏衣巷在南京秦淮河南岸，原為東吳烏衣營的駐地，故名，後為東晉時高門士族的聚居區，東晉開國元勛王導和指揮淝水之戰的謝安都住在這裏，在刘宋、南齐时期，定居于乌衣巷的琅邪王氏支系因为官位不高，门第被琅邪王氏定居于马粪巷的一支马粪诸王压倒。...
Wealth isn’t a zero-sum game in which the rich get richer only if others become poorer, but political power is zero-sum
Friends, This week brings us to one of the core problems of widening inequality — the inevitability that concentrated income and wealth at the top comes with political power. Wealth isn’t a zero-sum game in which the rich get richer only if others become poorer, but political power
difference between “pre-distribution” and “redistribution” of income and wealth
We now turn to policies where widening inequality is directly implicated. The first and most obvious (and most politically contentious) involves taxing higher-income people and redistributing to lower-income people. My goal today is to get students to reexamine their assumptions, both about how the system of taxing and redistributing actually works (or doesn’t) and about the practical consequences.
Friends, Today I examine the morally and politically complex question of who deserves public assistance. Just click below, and you’re in the class. I reach back into history — to the 14th century, as well as to the last 40 years in America — to see how this question has been answered differently over time. And contrast the dominant view since the Clinton administration with a remarkable experiment America conducted between July and December 2021.
It’s impossible to reform our economic system without altering the allocation of political power that prevents such reform
What we must do
movement... to unite the poor, working and middle class, people of color and white people — everyone who has barely had a raise in 30 years and who now feels cynical, powerless, and disenfranchised
starting in July 2021, 36 million American families began receiving pandemic payments of up to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for each child under six).The result? Child poverty dropped by at least a third, and the typical family gained some breathing space.This hugely successful experiment ended abruptly in December 2021 when Senator Joe Manchin joined 50 Republican senators in rejecting President Biden’s Build Back Better Act, which would have continued it.They cited concerns over the experiment’s cost — an estimated $100 billion per year, or $1.6 trillion over 10 years. But that’s less than big corporations and the rich will have saved on taxes from the Trump Republican tax cut of 2018. Repeal it, and there would be enough money. The cost is also less than the increase in the wealth of America’s 745 billionaires during the pandemic. Why not a wealth tax?The experiment died because, put simply, the oligarchy didn’t want to pay for it
Capitalism is consistent with democracy when democracy is in the driver’s seat — reducing the inequalities, insecurities, joblessness, and poverty that accompany unbridled profit-seeking
