Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
David Cay Johnston (Portfolio, 2008)
The hidden inequities that run all throughout America’s tax system.
Perfectly Legal: The Secret Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich — And Cheat Everybody Else
David Cay Johnston (Portfolio, 2003)
How attacks on America’s progressive income tax have cemented the nation’s increasing inequality.
The Color of Wealth : The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide
Meizhu Lui, Bárbara Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Rose Brewer, and Rebecca Adamson, with United for a Fair Economy (The New Press, 2006)
This team effort by veteran activists and academics relates how conscious political decisions — some made years ago, some just yesterday — have denied millions of people of color the opportunity to accumulate assets and live the American dream.
The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality
Thomas M. Shapiro (Oxford University Press, 2004)
Racial inequality in the United States, the latest studies make clear, is actually widening. How can racial inequality be increasing now that we have knocked down, after years of civil rights struggle, so many of the barriers that have blocked minority access to jobs, skills, and education? Brandeis sociologist Thomas Shapiro supplies an explanation.
The Looting of America: How Wall Street’s Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity
Les Leopold (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009)
Ever get the feeling that we ordinary mortals will never really understand how high finance power suits melted down the global economy? Tired of feeling clueless? Read this.
Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer
Dean Baker (Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2016)
Baker does a deep dive into the trade agreements and other rigged rules that are driving America’s wealth to concentrate into ever fewer hands.
The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer
Dean Baker (Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2006). Full text available online.
The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens
Gabriel Zucman (University of Chicago Press, 2015)
UC Berkeley economist explains why official inequality statistics severely understate the wealth of the super rich due to offshore tax havens.
Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
Thomas Frank (Metropolitan Books, 2016)
Ever get the feeling the Democratic Party isn’t particularly concerned about economic inequality? In this blistering critique of the Democratic Party, Thomas Frank explains the metamorphosis that’s taken place since the 1972 election. The party of the working class has evolved into the party of the professional class.
Rigging the Game: How Inequality Is Reproduced in Everyday Life.
Michael Schwalbe (Oxford University Press, 2008)
How do social orders that privilege some at the expense of others survive? Why do people accept injustice? A thoughtful sociologist is asking questions even egalitarians all too frequently ignore.
The Political Origins of Inequality: Why a More Equal World Is Better for Us All
Simon Reid-Henry (University of Chicago Press, 2015)
A look at the political decisions that drive inequality, and how politicians try to hide them.