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There Are Lots of Twisted and Extreme Rich Guys Where Donald Sterling Came From

One of the greatest things about a market economy is that all sorts of people can get to the top -- in contrast to, say, feudalism where the only people at the top are those who were born there. And while I spend plenty of time bemoaning the decline of upward mobility and how privilege is increasingly inherited in America, the fact remains that there are still elements of a robust meritocracy here.
Blog
David Callahan

Kwasi Enin and the “Ethnic” And “Regular” Black Divide

It’s the end of April—and probably safe to say the Kwasi Enin thing is played out. I’m going to be “that guy” who annoyingly resurrects a topic long after everyone else in the convo has buried it. While Kwasi’s specific headline may have had a one-week expiration date, the American media manufactures these frenzies every so often.

Blog
Jamal Mtshali

Why Globalization Doesn't Matter So Much Anymore in the Inequality Debate

President Obama has spent a lot of time in Asia talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the big trade deal that negotiators have been working on for a few years. But all that energy is probably for naught, at least for the time being, since the TPP isn't going anywhere in Congress anytime soon. I could say more about the TPP, but I'll spare you, since most people don't share my fascination with global trade. 

Blog
David Callahan

How a New Bill Could Fix the Pay Gap Between Fast-Food CEOs and Workers

No less a capitalist than Henry Ford believed in paying his workforce enough so that the men who built his cars could buy his cars too. At McDonald’s, employees are encouraged to apply for food stamps if they aren’t making enough to eat.

In the media
Willy Blackmore

Fast-Food CEOs Paid 1,000 Times More Than Their Workers

If you want a glimpse of super-sized pay inequality, look no further than America’s fast-food industry.

Nowhere is company-level pay disparity more apparent than in fast food, where CEOs reportedly take home $1,000 for every $1 earned by their typical employee.

In the media
Krystal Steinmetz

Domino's Boss Gets Too Large a Slice of Salary Pie, Shareholders Say

Domino’s Pizza boss J Patrick Doyle is getting too large a slice of the pie, shareholders will tell the company’s board at the fast food chain’s annual meeting on Tuesday.

The two largest shareholder advisory groups, ISS and Glass Lewis; CalSTRS, California’s $183bn teachers’ pension fund; and Change to Win investment group, which advises trade union-sponsored pension funds, have all voiced concerns about compensation at the pizza company ahead of Tuesday’s annual shareholder meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In the media
Dominic Rushe

Do We Really Want to Raise Taxes on Capital?

Here's what has been so great about having wealth over the past two decades: not only has it been easy to make lots of money from investing that wealth, but taxes have hovered near a historic low on capital gains and stock dividends. So those with assets to deploy have been getting a twofer: High returns, low taxes on those returns.
Blog
David Callahan

Food Service is ‘Most Unequal Sector’ in the Economy

The American economy overall is ferociously unequal, but some sectors are more unequal than others. A new study from the left-leaning think tank Demos looked at CEO-to-worker compensation ratios across the labor force in an attempt to determine where inequality is most concentrated. The answer probably won’t surprise you.

In the media
Ned Resnikoff

Reflecting on $1 Trillion in Student Debt, and Why We're Headed for $2 Trillion

States have disinvested in public higher education and students have been stuck paying the tag.

Blog
Mark Huelsman