This Simpler Living OneEarth Podcast is a co-production of Simple Living Works! and The Common Good Podcast (OneEarth Jubilee).
Over the last few decades 15% of U.S. wealth has been transferred from 99% of the populace to 1%. The 2018 tax revisions continue that trend—something many of us will notice as we file 2018 tax returns. In this moment of GREAT INEQUALITY, we’re excited that we get to share the voice and thought of Chuck Collins with our listeners. I (Lee) first became familiar with him through the book, Robin Hood Was Right: A Guide to Giving Your Money for Social Change, co-authored by Chuck in 2000. Then I was greatly impacted by a book he wrote with Felice Yeskel, Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity (2005). That book so clearly explains how the economic system can lessen the economic divides in our society and how it can increase them. Subsequently, I established a relationship with Chuck at the Solidarity Economic Forum in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2009. When I wrote my first book, Blinded by Progress, Chuck agreed to write the “Foreword.” I’m grateful for that.
As Program Director of InEquality and the Common Good, a part of the Institute for Policy Studies, Chuck edits the “Inequality This Week” eNewsletter. In fact, a good way to appreciate why Chuck can speak with authority to inequality and the racial wealth divide is to scan titles of his writings.
- He is author of the popular book, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good (Chelsea Green)
- His new book: Is Inequality in America Irreversible? (Oxford, UK-based Polity Press).
- He’s also written 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It.
- He is co-author with Bill Gates Sr. of Wealth and Our Commonwealth, (Beacon Press, 2003), a case for taxing inherited fortunes. Chuck’s work with wealth persons led to co-founding Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-income households and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation. This network merged in 2015 with the Patriotic Millionaires.
- He co-authored The Moral Measure of the Economy, with Mary Wright, a book about Christian ethics and economic life.
- He’s also co-author of several Institute for Policy Studies reports including “The Road To Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide is Hollowing Out America’s Middle Class,” “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us” and “Gilded Giving: Top Heavy Philanthropy in an Age of Extreme Inequality.”
