‘Game Changers’ Just Out in The Nation

Today, more than ever, everybody in American public life seems to be talking about inequality. But just what could we be doing to cut that inequality down to something close to democratic size?

The latest cover story of The Nation, America’s largest-circulation progressive weekly, offers a broad array of answers from our inequality team here at the Institute for Policy Studies. The feature focuses on bold solutions to the growing inequality that has been steadily creeping up on us for decades.

In the cover story’s overview, we start off by exploring the need to see inequality as a deep systemic problem. Piecemeal interventions have not helped slow or reverse the pace of wealth concentration. To do that, we need game changers.

If you’re playing in a game that turns out to be rigged, you need to change the game. Our game-changing proposals all link to concrete social movements both mature and newly budding. Head over to The Nation to check out the whole feature, entitled Game Changers: How we can unrig the rules and reverse runaway inequality, or check out each individual solution listed here.

Game-changing strategies for taking on inequality:

• How Wall Street Reform Could Give Low-Income Families a Big Boost  – Reining in the big banks would reduce risk while generating investment opportunities for everyone else.

• The Secret to Funding Universal Pre-K Is Buried in the Tax Code – If we closed the capital-gains loophole, we could put every child in America on track for success.

• Want Debt-Free College? Tax the Rich. – A 1 percent tax on concentrated wealth would erase student debt over a decade and bring the cost of public higher education to zero.

• Black Workers Matter, Too  – A movement linking civil rights with the right to organize would narrow the racial wage gap—and reinvigorate American labor.

• How the Super-Rich Can Kickstart the Green Economy – A surcharge on luxury consumption would curb emissions and help communities make the jump to clean energy.

• Retirement Benefits Are Rigged to Favor the Rich – Wealthy CEOs are sheltering too much of their pay. A cap could fund long-term care for all seniors.

• Offshore Tax Havens Are Strangling Local Government  – The super-rich have stashed more than $1 trillion overseas. Bringing it home would help restore poor communities.
• How US Tax Policy Encourages Outrageous CEO Compensation – This loophole will cost the federal treasury an estimated $50 billion over the next decade.

We hope you enjoy reading this Nation cover story. Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter on our latest work here at Inequality.org and Too Much, our monthly commentary on excess and inequality.

Josh Hoxie is director of the Project on Opportunity and Taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of Inequality.org.