March 20, 2024                                                         Home   Subscribe  Open in Browser

An important part of Inequality.org’s mission is to get information about ever growing wealth disparities in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Lately we’ve been having some major successes on that front.

Over the past week, dozens of news outlets, from national media like USA Today and Fortune to local newspapers like the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Ohio Capital Journal, have covered our new report exposing companies that pay their top executives more than they pay in federal income taxes. 

The impact of all these stories? Let’s just say that our nation’s PR flacks at corporations dodging taxes and overpaying CEOs did not have a great week. 

Our charity reform work is also garnering major new media attention. The Boston Globe recently published a front-page “above the fold” investigation into “donor-advised funds” that relied heavily on our research.

Getting good media coverage obviously only gets us so far. The fight for greater equality takes much more than high-profile acknowledgements that things have gone wrong. That fight takes the inspired advocacy of egalitarians at every level, and this week, as always, we have plenty of examples to share. 

Chuck Collins and Chris Mills Rodrigo
for the Institute for Policy Studies’ Inequality.org team

Building Student Labor Solidarity Abroad One Campus at a Time

Yosef Nelson and the organization he helped found, Students for International Labor Solidarity, are just getting started in their fight to demand the ethical treatment of garment workers abroad.

Nelson and his classmates are pressing the University of Pittsburgh to drop its contract with Nike, a corporate giant that’s sourcing from Hong Seng Knitting, a Thai-based factory accused of depriving its workers of nearly $600,000 in wages .

“Initially our whole goal was to enforce the university's supplier and licensing code of conduct,” Nelson tells Inequality.org. “That kind of morphed into Students for International Labor Solidarity as we decided that we wanted to expand the movement to make sure that we can help garment workers around the world and have a better network for organizing.”

Nelson and his fellow activists are now hoping to leverage their university-based work to demand improvements in the treatment of workers worldwide.

An Unusual International Message: Organize the Rich to Tax the Rich

Erica Payne brought an unusual perspective earlier this week to a United Nations summit on international taxation. At such gatherings, leaders of poor nations typically demand that rich nations share more of their wealth. Payne, in her presentation, spoke on behalf of wealthy individuals who believe governments everywhere should be increasing taxes on the rich. 

As the founder and president of the Patriotic Millionaires, Payne represents a growing network of unlikely voices in the movement to reverse inequality: high net worth individuals who understand the danger of today’s extreme concentration of wealth and power. 

“To be clear,” Payne told world leaders, “this is not an act of kindness or of philanthropy. It is in our own self-interest. The far right is on the rise around the world. If we do not address the twin crises of wealth concentration and inequality, we will face in the next decade the wholesale dismantling and eventual death of liberal democracy, of justice, and of basic human freedom.”

Since the founding of Patriotic Millionaires in 2010, the group has helped disrupt the “myth of deservedness,” the notion that the rich have become rich simply by working smarter and harder than everyone else. 

“Over the last decade,” Payne pointed out, “the richest 1 percent have captured half of all of the new wealth created, and it is not because they are twice as talented as everyone else in the world. It's how the system has been designed.”

For Payne’s full speech and video, click the link below.

For America’s Wealthy, a Truly Sweet Start to Our 21st Century

Our rich are riding high. In the Hamptons, the prime Long Island summer getaway for Wall Street’s finest, realtors are now expecting an “especially lively” spring sales season. In February, new listings in the Hamptons soared 51 percent over their level just a year ago. The leap in listings running between $5 million and $10 million: up 136 percent. Credit these happy times for America’s most financially favored to George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The first term of the second President Bush saw two major rich people-friendly tax cuts enacted, and Donald Trump, in 2017, added another. How much happiness have these cuts brought our wealthiest? Inequality.org co-editor Sam Pizzigati has more.

After a Titanic Political Stumble, This Mogul Is Promising a Real Titanic

This week’s dour deep pocket: Clive Palmer, the 69-year-old Australian mining kingpin currently sitting on a $4.3-billion personal fortune.

What has him sour: Doubts that he’ll be able to make good on his just-announced promise to launch a replica of the ill-fated original Titanic luxury liner in June 2027.

Palmer has already — twice before, in 2012 and 2018 — promised to put a Titanic II to sea. But those attempts went nowhere. The difference this time? Says Palmer: “I’ve got more money now.”

A good bit more money since the political party he founded went kaput in 2022. His United Australia Party spent more in a single year, notes one media outlet, “than any political party in Australian history,” and $117 million of the party’s record outlay of over $120 million came directly out of Palmer’s corporate pocket.

The last word: “It’s a lot more fun to do the Titanic,” Palmer told reporters last week, “than it is to sit at home and count my money.”

Erica Payne, Tax The Rich, Save The World. The founder and president of Patriotic Millionaires calls for taxes on the wealthy before a United Nations panel.

Brian Lehrer and Michael Graetz, Pres. Biden's Budget Proposal and Comparing Tax Policies, The Brian Lehrer Show. A discussion on Biden's budget proposals and tax policies and how they compare to GOP proposals.

A new Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness report finds that 35 profitable U.S. firms paid less in federal income taxes than they paid their top five executives between 2018 and 2022 — despite recording strong profits. This chart looks at the 10 firms in that group of 35 that shelled out the most in executive compensation. For an interactive version of this chart and more on the report, read co-author Sarah Anderson’s blog post below.

Inequality.org runs on the loving labor of a small team of researchers, writers, and advocates. More than anything, all of us involved believe deeply in the power of everyday people to come together to accomplish something big! We’ve built this operation around our weekly newsletter, and our paid subscribers make this newsletter possible with monthly donations. Join the ranks of our paid subscribers: Start today.