99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do about It [Paperback]

Chuck Collins (Author), Barbara Ehrenreich (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2012

The focus of the worldwide Occupy protests is creating a world that works for 99% of people and businesses, not just the richest and most powerful 1%. But who are the 99%? Who are the 1%? How extensive and systemic is inequality in different areas of society? What are its causes and consequence? How is inequality changing in our world? And what can be done about it?

For many years Chuck Collins has been a top leader in studying, speaking about, and writing about these questions. In this book he brings together in one place, for the first time, information that has been widely scattered in many different articles, reports, and websites. He provides revealing and powerful information about inequality in all realms of today’s world, including individual wealth and power, corporate wealth and power, media control, political influence, and other areas. He then describes the functioning of the Wall Street Inequality Machine and describes how inequality wrecks everything we care about. And he tells how people and groups are pushing back against inequality and taking action to reduce inequality and create a world that works for the many and not just the few.
 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and directs IPS's Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is an expert on U.S. inequality and author of several books, including Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity, co-authored with Felice Yeskel and Wealth and Our Commonwealth, a case for taxing inherited fortunes, which he co-authored with Bill Gates, Sr. He is co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-income households and other partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation, as well as co-founder of United for a Fair Economy (UFE), which works to raise the profile of wealth inequality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (April 9, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1609945921
• ISBN-13: 978-1609945923
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chuck Collins is author of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It (www.99to1book.org). He is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good (www.inequality.org). He is cofounder of Wealth for the Common Good (www.wealthforcommongood.org), a national network of business leaders and high net worth individuals concerned about shared prosperity and fair taxation. He is a national expert on economic inequality, tax policy, corporate power and class privilege and power. He lives in Boston, Mass.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A lucid analysis of how the 1% got to be that way, and how the 99% can fight back March 27, 2012

By Mal Warwick

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Leave it to a scrappy little San Francisco publishing house to be first out of the gate with a primer on the central lesson to be learned from the Occupy Wall Street movement: that the disparity in wealth (not income) between the 99% and the 1% is the most significant economic fact about the U.S. today. Most books spring from the minds of authors, who in turn seek out publishers, but Berrett-Koehler has a long history of identifying themes and issues that cry out for analysis -- and then finding the authors to take them on. In Chuck Collins, one of the nation's leading scholars and activists on the topic of wealth inequality, Berrett-Koehler struck paydirt.

In 99 to 1, Collins lucidly spotlights the terrible price we all pay for the massive imbalance in wealth between today's haves and have-nots. He surveys U.S. economic history, drawing a parallel between the Gilded Age of the 1890s through the 1920s and the current era, beginning in the late 1970s -- both of them periods when the disparity of wealth grew to unprecedented proportions. Collins explains the political dynamics that gave rise to today's wealth disparity, identifying those responsible as the "rule-riggers" among the 1%, chiefly the leaders of Wall Street-based financial institutions and of the transnational corporations they finance as well as a small number of the individuals who are benefiting the most from the current economic regime.

"In a nutshell," Collins writes, "(1) the rules of the economy have been changed to benefit asset owners at the expense of wage earners, and (2) these rule changes have benefited global corporations at the expense of local businesses...."

As Collins explains, the 1% today includes individuals with net worth of $5 million or more -- a total of roughly 3 million individuals or 1.5 million households. Obviously, this large number of people aren't co-conspirators in a historic scheme to plunder the U.S. economy. However, a small percentage of the 1% does actively participate in an ongoing effort to shift wealth from the poor and middle class to the coffers of those who are already rich.

These "rule-riggers," most of whom can be found among the top one-tenth of 1%, use every advantage at their disposal: their direct access to legislators; the thousands of lobbyists their companies maintain on Capitol Hill and in statehouses throughout the country; their personal and corporate philanthropy; and their positions in society as "opinion leaders." The result of their three decades of effort has been to weaken labor unions; undermine government regulations ensuring public health, job safety, and environmental quality; seizing control of both major political parties; and disproportionately benefiting not just the 1% as a whole but the very richest among them. As Collins notes, "between 1979 and 2007, the top one-tenth of 1 percent realized 36 percent of the total [gain realized by the top 1 percent]. The 1 percent saw their incomes go up 224 percent over these years, while the richest one-tenth of 1 percent saw theirs rise by 360 percent."

Tragically, the growing disparity in wealth is neither new nor just an American phenomenon. More than 2,000 years ago, Plato (yes, that Plato) wrote that "the legislator should determine what is to be the limit of poverty or of wealth." And Collins cites a UN study finding that "the richest 1 percent of the world's adult population, individuals worth at least $514,512, owned 39.9 percent of the world's household wealth. This is greater than the wealth of the world's poorest 95 percent, those adults worth under $150,145, who together hold just 29.4 percent of the world's wealth." Not to speak of the billions of people who don't have a pot to piss in, let alone $150,000!

Collins devotes considerable attention to identifying the steps that need to be taken to reverse the direction of the pendulum. He is careful to point out that any movement to do so will find a great many allies within the 1 percent. Collins cites polling results that "over 65 percent of people in the 1 percent agree with the concerns of the 99 percent and believe they should pay more taxes." However, an effort to reverse the present course will require a fundamental shift in society's values over many decades. Collins enumerates the clashing values between those at the top of the wealth pyramid and most of the rest of us and lays out a policy agenda based on a "seven-generation perspective -- the belief that our actions should be considered in light of their impact seven generations into the future."

99 to 1 should be required reading for every public official, every activist, and every citizen who wants to understand what really makes society tick and how its malfunctioning economic systems can be repaired.

(From <...>) Read more ›

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of US income inequality April 10, 2012

By Joshua P. OConner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Chuck Collins release of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do about It comes on the heels of the Occupy Wall Street movement which gained mainstream notoriety throughout the press. 99 to 1 seeks to explore the concepts of inequality as well as their origins and how inequality impacts us as a society today. In other words, it provides a more in-depth exploration of the gross disparities that the Occupy movement highlighted within the American economic system.

Collins delivers an informative glance into the issues of wealth, power, and influence within the United States while avoiding the opportunity to engage in rhetoric and blame. 99 to 1 examines what wealth is and how it has become such a pervasive and defining element within both our social and political systems today. Personally I found myself gravitating toward Collins' non-accusatory writing style.

Interestingly one of the major facets of Collins's book is how wealth has become the key to influence within our modern political system. As we've all expected, political contributions appear to purchase influence and those who have lots of money to throw at politics typically gain a level of direct access that's unavailable to us. It's not necessarily any one dramatic revelation within the book that makes it worth the read, but rather Collins' well-referenced discussion that really drives home the audacity of wealth.

Collins wraps things up with some specific recommendations regarding reform and the 1%. As one might imagine, they're not altogether palatable if you're a member of a 1%, but the reality of the situation is that we can't continue to engage in rhetoric which avoids directly addressing the advantages that the 1% has within the current system....

Rather than attempt to go into great detail about the nuanced issues that Collins addresses, I'll list the questions that 99 to 1 addressed for me:

Is income inequality really growing in the United States or are we simply lodged within some romantic notion of economic equality?

How did the 1% become the 1% and how did the 99% get left behind?

What systems perpetuate the power of the 1% and why do they remain in place?

Is the United States truly the land of opportunity that we've always heard about? Is the 99% just bad at the game?

What can we do about inequality?

I can promise you that you're going to walk away from 99 to 1 with questions spawned by the points that Collins brings up, but the reality is that these questions are necessary in steering the United States onto a new, more equitable path. Read more ›

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous April 2, 2012

By David H. Gleason

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Chuck Collin's new book is clear, concise and expertly presented. His knowledge of the field of inequality is encyclopedic, yet he distills his message into a short, readable presentation. Documented with extensive references and data, his message couldn't be more straightforward or timely - if we want a civil society, we must figure out a way to balance the use of our resources. Never one to boast, Chuck puts the action back into the hands of the citizen. He does not judge and is not naive about the value of profitability. He is not radical, nor does he vilify the wealthy. Rather, he points to specific ways in which we can resolve the core issues of our economy that would work for everyone. Both scholarly and poignant, this is a must read for anyone seeking solutions to inequity in our society.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How the Economy is Rigged October 6, 2012

By Richard H. Burkhart

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book uses an easy-to-read format to lay out the essential facts that citizens need to know about the devastating causes and effects inequality. Collins describes the "rule riggers" among the 1%, what they do, and how they do it (taxes, monopolies, political and media influence, even "charity").

Then he tells what this does to the 99% - how it harms health, social mobility, public services, economic growth, and more. Then there's the Wall Street and corporate CEO racket to swindle investors and citizens for the really big bucks. Yet the Occupy Movement demonstrates the possibility of a real power shift. Our leaders will follow if we build a strong enough social movement, and we have allies even among the 1%, globally too.

Some choice quotes: "The richest 400 taxpayers have seen their effective tax rates decline from over 40% in 1961 to 18.% in 2010. " "Between 2001 and 2010 the United States borrowed almost $1 trillion to give tax breaks to the 1%." "The wealth of the bottom 60% of population has declined since 1983." "By 2007 an estimated 40% or corporate profits came from the financial sector." "Billionaires move from compound to compound, with servants flying ahead to prepare for dinner parties and other seasonal activities." "Only 3% of charitable contributions from private foundations are given to projects that address poverty alleviation and the root causes of social problems." "The mega-corporations of Wall Street fund a network of pro-free-market think tanks, research organizations advocacy groups, and associations such as the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable that have armies of lobbyists and public relations firms." "Corporations that are built to last versus built to loot." "The inequality death spiral."