America's Inequality Trap

America's Inequality Trap
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 215
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226665504
ISBN-13 : 022666550X
Rating : 4/5 (50X Downloads)

Book Synopsis America's Inequality Trap by : Nathan J. Kelly

Download or read book America's Inequality Trap written by Nathan J. Kelly and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gap between the rich and the poor has grown dramatically in the United States and is now at its widest since at least the early 1900s. While by most measures the economy has been improving, soaring cost of living and stagnant wages have done little to assuage economic anxieties. Conditions like these seem designed to produce a generation-defining intervention to balance the economic scales and enhance opportunities for those at the middle and bottom of the country’s economic ladder—but we have seen nothing of the sort. Nathan J. Kelly argues that a key reason for this is that rising concentrations of wealth create a politics that makes reducing economic inequality more difficult. Kelly convincingly shows that, when a small fraction of the people control most of the economic resources, they also hold a disproportionate amount of political power, hurtling us toward a self-perpetuating plutocracy, or an “inequality trap.” Among other things, the rich support a broad political campaign that convinces voters that policies to reduce inequality are unwise and not in the average voter’s interest, regardless of the real economic impact. They also take advantage of interest groups they generously support to influence Congress and the president, as well as state governments, in ways that stop or slow down reform. One of the key implications of this book is that social policies designed to combat inequality should work hand-in-hand with political reforms that enhance democratic governance and efforts to fight racism, and a coordinated effort on all of these fronts will be needed to reverse the decades-long trend.


America's Inequality Trap Related Books

America's Inequality Trap
Language: en
Pages: 215
Authors: Nathan J. Kelly
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-02-11 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The gap between the rich and the poor has grown dramatically in the United States and is now at its widest since at least the early 1900s. While by most measure
America's Inequality Trap
Language: en
Pages: 215
Authors: Nathan J. Kelly
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-02-11 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The gap between the rich and the poor has grown dramatically in the United States and is now at its widest since at least the early 1900s. While by most measure
The Meritocracy Trap
Language: en
Pages: 450
Authors: Daniel Markovits
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-09-08 - Publisher: Penguin

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that ad
Toxic Inequality
Language: en
Pages: 222
Authors: Thomas M. Shapiro
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-03-14 - Publisher: Basic Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From a leading authority on race and public policy, a deeply researched account of how families rise and fall today Since the Great Recession, most Americans' s
The Inequality Trap
Language: en
Pages: 239
Authors: William Watson
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-09-15 - Publisher: University of Toronto Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

US President Barack Obama has called economic inequality the “defining issue of our time.” It has inspired the “Occupy” movements, made a French economi