Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes
Bill Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins (Beacon Press, 2004)
Bill Gates Sr., the father of Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and veteran activist Chuck Collins, co-founder of United for a Fair Economy, have crafted the most readable case for taxing concentrated wealth since the estate tax first became law.
Five Easy Theses: Commonsense Solutions to America’s Greatest Economic Challenges
James M. Stone (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016)
Stone, an insurance executive, lays out a program to address five areas of national bewilderment: fiscal balance, inequality, education, health care, and financial sector reform. On inequality, Stone does not dismiss solutions addressing wage inequality and worker bargaining power, Stone zeroes on what he calls “the sequestering of wealth in the rarified top percentiles.”
The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity
Jared Bernstein (2015)
Vice President Biden’s former chief economist discusses policy prescriptions that promote growth and fight inequality.
Obama’s Challenge: America’s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency
Robert Kuttner (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008)
This noted progressive economist saw the crash coming. He sees a solution, too — if we’re willing to confront concentrated wealth.
The Measure of a Nation: How to Regain America’s Competitive Edge and Boost Our Global Standing
Howard Steven Friedman (Prometheus Books, 2012)
The United States, the developed world’s most unequal major nation, ranks poorly against its peer nations on almost every indicator of social decency and well-being, documents this leading Columbia University statistician.
A Sharing Economy: How Social Wealth Funds Can Reduce Inequality and Help Balance the Books
Stewart Lansley (Policy Press, 2016)
In an essay some 70 years ago, George Orwell famously decried how the political manipulation of language can corrupt how we think. That manipulation continues today. The newest iteration is the “sharing economy” that disproportionately benefits a very small number of people.
Sixteen for ‘16: A Progressive Agenda for a Better America
Salvatore Babones (Policy Press/University of Chicago Press, 2015)
American sociologist lays out a progressive agenda to make society more equal at the economic and political levels.