Video Clips
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer–and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson (2011) – Video interview with the authors by Bill Moyers
From Amazon.com: A groundbreaking work that identifies the real culprit behind one of the great economic crimes of our time— the growing inequality of incomes between the vast majority of Americans and the richest of the rich. We all know that the very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades while most Americans haven’t. In fact, the exorbitantly paid have continued to thrive during the current economic crisis, even as the rest of Americans have continued to fall behind.
Why do the “haveit- alls” have so much more? And how have they managed to restructure the economy to reap the lion’s share of the gains and shift the costs of their new economic playground downward, tearing new holes in the safety net and saddling all of us with increased debt and risk? Lots of so-called experts claim to have solved this great mystery, but no one has really gotten to the bottom of it—until now. In their lively and provocative Winner-Take-All Politics, renowned political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate convincingly that the usual suspects—foreign trade and financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, increased education at the top—are largely innocent of the charges against them.
Instead, they indict an unlikely suspect and take us on an entertaining tour of the mountain of evidence against the culprit. The guilty party is American politics. Runaway inequality and the present economic crisis reflect what government has done to aid the rich and what it has not done to safeguard the interests of the middle class. The winner-take-all economy is primarily a result of winner-take-all politics. In an innovative historical departure, Hacker and Pierson trace the rise of the winner-take-all economy back to the late 1970s when, under a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress, a major transformation of American politics occurred. With big business and conservative ideologues organizing themselves to undo the regulations and progressive tax policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards, deregulation got under way, taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decisively defeated labor in Washington. And this transformation continued under Reagan and the Bushes as well as under Clinton, with both parties catering to the interests of those at the very top.
Hacker and Pierson’s gripping narration of the epic battles waged during President Obama’s first two years in office reveals an unpleasant but catalyzing truth: winner-take-all politics, while under challenge, is still very much with us. Winner-Take-All Politics—part revelatory history, part political analysis, part intellectual journey— shows how a political system that traditionally has been responsive to the interests of the middle class has been hijacked by the superrich. In doing so, it not only changes how we think about American politics, but also points the way to rebuilding a democracy that serves the interests of the many rather than just those of the wealthy few.
Oligarchy and Democracy
Jeffery Winters (The American Interest-Nov/Dec 2011)
It is a confounding moment in American political history. On the one hand, evidence of democratic possibilities is undeniable. In 2008, millions of Americans helped catapult a man of half-African descent into the White House long before observers thought the nation was “ready.”… On the other hand, democracy appears chronically dysfunctional when it comes to policies that impinge on the rich… Reduced taxes on the ultra-rich and the corporations and banks they dominate have shifted fiscal burdens downward even as they have strained the government’s capacity to maintain infrastructure, provide relief to children and the poor, and assist the elderly.
The Inequality That Matters
Tyler Cowen (The American Interest-Jan/Feb 2011)
Does growing wealth and income inequality in the United States presage the downfall of the American republic? Will we evolve into a new Gilded Age plutocracy, irrevocably split between the competing interests of rich and poor? Or is growing inequality a mere bump in the road, a statistical blip along the path to greater wealth for virtually every American? Or is income inequality partially desirable, reflecting the greater productivity of society’s stars?
Occupy Wall Street Puts Nation on Notice
Peter Morici (CNBC-11/21/11)
Dispossessed by police from prominent venues around the country, the forces that inspired mass, albeit unseemly demonstrations have not abated. America is rapidly fracturing into two nations—affluent players in the global economy and a growing mass facing diminished circumstances for themselves and their children.
If forces marginalizing millions are not addressed, America is headed for much worse than tent cities and baths in parks. Economic bifurcation into the super affluent and the poor will erode the institutions and values that bound together immigrants from many heritages, faiths and tongues into a single nation.
Economics of Happiness: The New Economy
(Article with links to related resources)
To improve our own well-being within any economy, we need to attend to our security, social connections and the way we balance our time. Choosing to live with less stuff and lighter debt supports a better life with less income but more time, lower stress and better health. As individuals, we can:
- Focus more on matters of family and community and on building trust.
- Devote less attention to maximizing incomes and more attention to acts of generosity.
- Ask our employers for more time off instead of higher pay.
NYT Opinion: Did You Hear the One About the Bankers?
Thomas Friedman (10/29/2011)
This gets to the core of why all the anti-Wall Street groups around the globe are resonating… The news was that Citigroup had to pay a $285 million fine to settle a case in which, with one hand, Citibank sold a package of toxic mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting customers — securities that it knew were likely to go bust — and, with the other hand, shorted the same securities — that is, bet millions of dollars that they would go bust.
Trends in the Distribution of Household Income, 1979-2007 CBO-October 2011)
Contrasting Views of the Social Contract and Taxes (very short video clips)
Michelle Bachman / Elizabeth Warren
Distribution of Income, Wealth, and Power in America
From WhoRulesAmerica.net: Data, charts, and graphs presenting details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, with a discussion about how these two distributions as serve as power indicators.
Demos
A non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization founded in 2000. Headquartered in New York City, Demos works with advocates and policymakers around the country in pursuit of four overarching goals:
- a more equitable economy with widely shared prosperity and opportunity;
- a vibrant and inclusive democracy with high levels of voting and civic engagement;
- an empowered public sector that works for the common good;
- and responsible U.S. engagement in an interdependent world.
The United States of Inequality: The Great Divergence
(Timothy Noah, Slate – 09/2010: Overview with links to 10-part series)
In the late 1970s, a half-century trend toward growing income equality reversed itself. Ever since, U.S. incomes have grown more unequal. Middle-income workers no longer benefit from productivity increases, and upward mobility, long the saving grace of the American economy, has faltered. Why is this happening? This 30-year trend “may represent the most significant change in American society in your lifetime,” Noah writes, “and it’s not a change for the better.”
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
(Joseph Stiglitz, Vanity Fair – 05/2011)
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
Can the Middle Class Be Saved?
(Don Peck, The Atlantic – 09/2011)
The ease with which the rich and well educated have shrugged off the recession shouldn’t be surprising; strong winds have been at their backs for many years…Arguably, the most important economic trend in the United States over the past couple of generations has been the ever more distinct sorting of Americans into winners and losers, and the slow hollowing-out of the middle class. Median incomes declined outright from 1999 to 2009. For most of the aughts, that trend was masked by the housing bubble, which allowed working-class and middle-class families to raise their standard of living despite income stagnation or downward job mobility. But that fig leaf has since blown away. And the recession has pressed hard on the broad center of American society.
Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics
(Pew Research Center – 07/2011)
The Pew Research analysis finds that, in percentage terms, the bursting of the housing market bubble in 2006 and the recession that followed from late 2007 to mid-2009 took a far greater toll on the wealth of minorities than whites. From 2005 to 2009, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66% among Hispanic households and 53% among black households, compared with just 16% among white households.
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs by Mike Daisy
NYT Editorial: Fairness vs. Equality
