The Rich Don't Always Win
book by Sam Pizzigati
Sam Pizzigati, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses his new book, "The Rich Don't Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph Over Plutocracy That Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970."
Polls now show that two-thirds of Americans believe that the nation's enormous wealth ought to be "distributed more evenly." But almost as many Americans—well over half—feel that protests against inequality will ultimately have "little impact." The rich, millions of us believe, always get their way.
Except they don't.
A century ago, the United States hosted a super-rich even more domineering than ours today. Yet fifty years later that super rich had almost entirely disappeared. Their majestic mansions and estates had become museums and college campuses, and America had become a vibrant, mass middle class nation, the first and finest the world had ever seen.
Americans today ought to be taking no small inspiration from this stunning change. After all, if our forbears successfully beat back grand fortune, why can't we? But this transformation is inspiring virtually no one. Why? Because the story behind it has remained almost totally unknown, until now.
This lively popular history speaks directly to the political hopelessness so many Americans feel. By tracing how average Americans took down plutocracy over the first half of the 20th Century — and how plutocracy came back — The Rich Don't Always Win outfits the 99 percent with a deeper understanding of what we need to do to get the United States back on track to the American dream.
"Make room for The Rich Don't Always Win on your bookshelf right next to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States." —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed
"Bold, thorough, and above all inspiring—an energizing and spirited reminder of what it took, and what it will take, to once again make ours a nation of equals." —Gar Alperovitz, author of America Beyond Capitalism
"Only 50 years ago, America 'soaked' the rich with a 91 percent income tax. And guess what? America prospered! Not just the rich, but ordinary families. With colorful detail, Sam Pizzigati tells us why we should revisit that policy of prosperity for ALL, rather that for the plutocratic few." —Jim Hightower, national radio commentator and New York Times best-selling author
"This inspiring history offers a bold blueprint for today's equality movements." —Chuck Collins, author of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It