Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences

by James Lardner (Editor), David A. Smith (Editor)

Since the 1970s, the U.S. economy has been sending more and more of its rewards to fewer and fewer people. Once seen as a global exemplar of egalitarianism and middle-class opportunity, America has become the most unequal of developed nations―a land where corporate leaders earn hundreds of times the pay of average workers, and the only population group growing faster than millionaires is the uninsured. Statistics aside, this quarte-century-long trend has changed the texture of American life in ways that threaten our deepest values. Drawing on the best and latest research, the contributors explore issues such as the real story the numbers tell about how America has changed; dimensions of inequality (education, health, and opportunity); causes of inequality, looking past the usual suspects of technology, trade, and immigration; the persistence of racial disparities; the erosion of democracy and community; and inequality as a moral and religious problem. Not just a catalog of inequality's ills, the book concludes with a plausible and hopeful policy path―beyond redistribution―to a more just and humane economy.
With contributions

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Economics, History, Poverty

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 2006

About the author

James Lardner has written extensively about business, technology, the financial sector, and the role of regulation. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books, among other print and online publications. He was a senior fellow at Demos, a center for public policy based in New York City and a staff writer for the journal Remapping Debate, sponsored by the Anti-Discrimination Center. He was a member of the Washington, D.C., police force.

Reviews

[Nia Nymue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2005 but sadly still very relevant now. Some insightful pieces, and some that are just okay. Nothing particularly off-putting for me.

[Sidney אוֹר · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a political tract, and is based on a superficial and myopic premise. Sometimes the premise is a bit of colossal disingeneousness, to ignore facts and logic, e.g., inequality's main component is that different attitudes, i.e., tribal mores/kultur, and the lack of intellectual curiosity, produce dramatically different outcomes in human affairs. You have to ask yourself, why would a book about "inequality" ignore the role of such, and old-fashioned "ambition" ? Moreover, the rise of China and India in just a few decades, are worldwide counterweights to the premise of inequality....

[Elyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent assortment of essays explaining the causes and consequences of economic inequality. This book was written in 2005, so it's interesting to read the book knowing that the 2008 financial crisis was forthcoming and realizing that we could have avoided it.

[Public Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tremendous... the lineup of authors in this book know their stuff. This volume is a troubling look at inequality in the US in all its various manifestations... yet each of the authors offers reason for hope. A must read if you're interested in this subject.

[Linda]

Everyone deserves clean air, clean water, and a safe place to live as well as access to quality education, healthcare, and food. Yet, only the wealthiest Americans are guaranteed these necessities of life. Everyone else must get along as best as they can with the odds stacked against them.

Inequality Matters uses a series of essays to illustrate some of the problems and probable causes of the growing inequality in the United States. This is not a new phenomenon. Even though the book was published in 2005, it is still relevant to today because many of the issues covered are just getting worse. Money in politics rises to the top of the root cause of many, if not most, of the other issues.

This excerpt written by James Lardner pretty much sums up it up for me.

“Once we stop thinking about growing inequality as a divine or natural thing, Americans can gain the ability to look at it squarely, and then to recommit ourselves to the work of making the country in which we live more like the one we carry in our hearts.”

[Paul Elevario]

Good book.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

bill moyers thank you for that forward
would love to see a reunion book for 2025

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would say this is the book equivalent of Capitalism: A Love Story, which I also had to watch in conjunction with reading this book. Both, I quite liked, but they also both left me with a righteous rage and no place to channel it. After exploring our problems and our divisions of class and wealth in America and provoking me into a frothing pile of anger--tell me what to do! Voting and writing your representative just don't cut it sometimes. I would have given the book five stars if it had clearly outlined the steps of action you can take to reverse the problems discussed in the book.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a very balanced attempt to investigate the problems or causes of income equality in the US...guess I should have known based on the title. a good book if you are looking for fodder for arguments w/ republican friends.

[John Pickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of essays on the debilitating inequality in America. Forward by Bill Moyers is a must read in itself.

[Carolyn Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a must read for anyone contemplating the future of America.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. A lot of the essays were a bit repetitive.