Top Heavy: The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America and What Can Be Done About It

by Edward N. Wolff, Richard C. Leone (Foreword)

A work that sparked widespread controversy when it was first published, Top Heavy is acclaimed economist Edward N. Wolff's eloquent presentation of the facts of wealth inequality in the United States. In a completely revised and updated edition of the book the Boston Review hailed as "the leading contemporary study of the distribution of wealth," Wolff reveals the unprecedented rise in recent years of wealth inequality and shows how it is one of the major forces challenging democracy and economic opportunity in America. Wolff vividly illustrates how the gap between the haves and the have-nots in terms of wealth is greater now than at any time since 1929, immediately preceding the Great Depression. As the nation considers trillion-dollar tax cuts and the abolishment of the estate tax, Top Heavy takes a sobering look at how the wealth of the top 1 percent of households continues its heart stopping expansion while the current distribution of wealth in America invites the surprisingly apt comparison with the class-dominated societies of nineteenth-century Europe. Top Heavy will continue to be an essential reference point in any discussion of what an economically healthy America might look like.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction

116 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

Reviews

[Public Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty good, though the numbers are wildly out of date now, this extended look at wealth inequality (as opposed to income inequality which gets much more attention) is basically a research paper in paperback form. However, it goes by pretty quickly at a breezy 150 pages or so. I was especially interested in Wolff's description of a possible wealth tax and his comparisons to how such a tax is done in other countries. Another piece of the inequality puzzle that is worth knowing about...

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be classified as fiction. Inequality does not exist and if it did, using the tax code to reduce would be impossible to legislate.

I'm taking suggestions for a NON-FICTION book that can change my perspective on mobility and income and wealth inequality.