Saving Capitalism
Page 29
Their national governments provide 54 percent of funding: Ibid (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/business/a-rich-childs-edge-in-public-education.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&).
“The vast majority of OECD countries”: Ibid (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/business/a-rich-childs-edge-in-public-education.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&).
15 THE RISE OF THE NON-WORKING RICH
Six of today’s ten wealthiest Americans: See “Forbes 400,” Forbes, September 12, 2014. See also “America’s Richest Families: 185 Clans with Billion Dollar Fortunes,” Forbes, last edited July 8, 2014 (http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/#tab:overall) (http://www.forbes.com/families).
the Walmart heirs have more wealth: Josh Bivens, “Inequality, Exhibit A: Walmart and the Wealth of American Families,” The Economic Policy Institute Blog, July 17, 2012 (http://www.epi.org/blog/inequality-exhibit-wal-mart-wealth-american/).
A study from the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy: John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish, A Golden Age of Philanthropy Still Beckons: National Wealth Transfer and Potential for Philanthropy Technical Report, Boston College, Center on Wealth and Philanthropy website, May 28, 2014. (http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cwp/pdf/A%20Golden%20Age%20of%20Philanthropy%20Still%20Bekons.pdf).
A U.S. Trust bank poll: U.S. Trust, “Insights on Wealth and Worth,” Key Findings, U.S. Trust website, 2013, p. 4 (http://www.ustrust.com/publish/content/application/pdf/GWMOL/UST-Key-Findings-Report-Insights-on-Wealth-and-Worth-2013.pdf).
For the rich under the age of thirty-five: Ibid (http://www.ustrust.com/publish/content/application/pdf/GWMOL/UST-Key-Findings-Report-Insights-on-Wealth-and-Worth-2013.pdf).
This is the dynastic form of wealth: See Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014).
the compounded result of these capital investments: See Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, “Wealth Inequality in the United States Since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data,” NBER Working Paper No. 20625, National Bureau of Economic Research website, October 2014.
in 1978, the richest 1 percent of households: Supplementary data provided by Congressional Budget Office, The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2011, table 7, “Sources of Income for All Households, by Market Income Group, 1979 to 2011,” Congressional Budget Office website, November 2014.
By 2007 they accounted for 49 percent: Ibid (www.cbo.gov/publication/49440).
They were also taking in 75 percent: Andy Nicholas, “Richest 1 percent get 75 percent of all capital gains,” Washington State Budget and Policy Center, Schmudget Blog, January 17, 2012 (http://budgetandpolicy.org/schmudget/richest-1-percent-get-75-percent-of-all-capital-gains).
family trusts used to be limited: See Ray D. Madoff, “America Builds an Aristocracy,” New York Times, July 11, 2010 (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/opinion/12madoff.html).
While the top tax rate: Curtis S. Dubay, “The Bush Tax Cuts Explained: Where Are They Now?” Issue Brief no. 3855, Heritage Foundation website, February 20, 2013, pp. 1–2 (http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2013/pdf/ib3855.pdf).
Before George W. Bush was president: Roberton Williams, “Resurrecting the Estate Tax as a Shadow of Its Former Self,” Tax Policy Center, TaxVox blog, December 14, 2010 (http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2010/12/14/resurrecting-the-estate-tax-as-a-shadow-of-its-former-self-2/#sthash.jEvfN1dO.dpuf).
By 2014, it applied only to assets in excess of $10 million: Ibid (http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2010/12/14/resurrecting-the-estate-tax-as-a-shadow-of-its-former-self-2/#sthash.jEvfN1dO.dpuf).
Representative Paul Ryan’s so-called road map: Representative Paul D. Ryan, “A Roadmap for America’s Future: Version 2.0,” January 2010 (http://paulryan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/rfafv2.0.pdf).
only 1.4 out of every 1,000 estates: Chye-Ching Huang and Nathaniel Frentz, “Myths and Realities About the Estate Tax,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website, August 29, 2013 (http://www.cbpp.org/files/estatetaxmyths.pdf).
the tax rate paid by America’s wealthy on their capital gains: “Federal Capital Gains Tax Rates, 1988–2013,” Tax Foundation website, June 13, 2013 (http://taxfoundation.org/article/federal-capital-gains-tax-rates-1988-2013).
They now account for more than half: Huang and Frentz, “Myths and Realities About the Estate Tax.” (http://www.cbpp.org/files/estatetaxmyths.pdf)
“the second golden age”: Rob Reich, “What Are Foundations For?” Boston Review, March 1, 2013 (http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/foundations-philanthropy-democracy).
they totaled an estimated $54 billion: Ibid (http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/foundations-philanthropy-democracy).
To put this into some perspective: U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives: Budget of the U.S. Government (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2012), pp. 309, 320, 326 (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2013-PER/pdf/BUDGET-2013-PER.pdf).
A 2005 analysis by Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy: Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, summer 2007, p. 28 (http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/files/research/giving_focused_on_meeting_needs_of_the_poor_july_2007.pdf).
New York’s Lincoln Center held a fund-raising gala: See Jenny Anderson, “Fund Managers Raising the Ante in Philanthropy,” New York Times, August 3, 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/business/03hedge.html?pagewanted=print&_r=1&).
The University of California, Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, “Pell Grant Awards as a Peer Metric,” May 2013 (http://opa.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/2011-12PellGrantComparison.pdf).
Private university endowments in 2014: “NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments,” National Association of College and University Business Officers website (http://www.nacubo.org/Research/NACUBO-Commonfund_Study_of_Endowments.html).
Harvard’s endowment: National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute, U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2013 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2012 to FY 2013, February 2014, p. 2 (http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2013NCSEEndowmentMarket%20ValuesRevisedFeb142014.pdf).
Harvard launched a capital campaign: Alvin Powell, “Harvard Kicks Off Fundraising Effort,” Harvard Gazette, September 21, 2013 (http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/09/harvard-kicks-off-fundraising-effort/).
A few years back, Meg Whitman: Richard Vedder, “Princeton Reaps Tax Breaks as State Colleges Beg,” Bloomberg View, March 18, 2012 (http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-03-18/princeton-reaps-tax-breaks-as-state-colleges-beg).
The annual government subsidy: Ibid (http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-03-18/princeton-reaps-tax-breaks-as-state-colleges-beg).
Dean Henry Brady: See also Sandy Baum, Jennifer Ma, and Kathleen Payea, Trends in Public Higher Education: Enrollment, Prices, Student Aid, Revenues, and Expenditures, College Board Advocacy & Policy Center, College Board website, May 2012, p. 1 (http://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/trends-2012-public-higher-education-expenditures-brief.pdf).
State and local financing for public higher education: Eduardo Porter, “Why Aid for College Is Missing the Mark,” New York Times, October 7, 2014 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/business/economy/why-federal-aid-for-higher-education-is-missing-the-mark.html).
more students attend public universities now: Ibid (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/business/economy/why-federal-aid-for-higher-education-is-missing-the-mark.html).
the average annual governm
ent subsidy: “Undergraduate Enrollment,” National Center for Education Statistics website, May 2014 (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cha.asp).
16 REPRISE
inequality after taxes: See International Monetary Fund, Fiscal Policy and Income Inequality, policy paper, figure 6, January 23, 2014 (http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2014/012314.pdf).
17 THE THREAT TO CAPITALISM
“It is a fixed principle”: Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, LL.D.: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (Baltimore: J. Murphy & Co., 1872), p. 212.
“We can have a democracy”: See Irving Dillard, Mr. Justice Brandeis, Great American: Press Opinion and Public Appraisal (St. Louis: The Modern View Press, 1941), p. 42.
“malefactors of great wealth”: Theodore Roosevelt, “Address of President Roosevelt on the Occasion of the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Pilgrim Memorial Monument,” Provincetown, MA, August 20, 1907 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1907), p. 47 (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23336834M/Address_of_President_Roosevelt_on_the_occasion_of_the_laying_of_the_corner_stone_of_the_Pilgrim_memo).
“all contributions by corporations”: Theodore Roosevelt, “State of the Union Message,” December 5, 1905 (http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/speeches/sotu5.pdf).
“Never before in all our history”: Franklin D. Roosevelt, address at Madison Square Garden, New York City, October 31, 1936. See Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project website (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15219).
the real median household income stagnated: See Carmen Denavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica C. Smith, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012, U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Reports P60-245 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, September 2013), figure 1, p. 5 (http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p60-245.pdf).
debt reached 135 percent: See Alberto Chong, “Inequality and Institutions,” The Review of Economics and Statistics 89, no. 3 (September 22, 2014): 2 (http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/public/projectfiles/02386f9f-409c-4cc9-bc6b-13574637ec1d.pdf).
It is not coincidental that 1928 and 2007: See Emmanuel Saez, “Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (Update with 2007 Estimates),” University of California, Department of Economics, August 5, 2009 (http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dp1f91x). Their calculation is before paying taxes, and it includes income from capital gains.
The richest four hundred Americans: See analysis by Lawrence Mishel, Josh Bivens, Elise Gould, and Heidi Shierholz, The State of Working America, 12th ed. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014) (http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/fact-sheets/wealth).
the wealthiest 1 percent: See ibid (http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/fact-sheets/wealth).
the share of wealth held by the lower half: See Janet L. Yellin, “Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of Consumer Finances,” speech at the Conference on Economic Opportunity and Inequality, Federal Reserve Bank of Massachusetts, Boston, October 17, 2014 (http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/yellen20141017a.htm).
By 2012, the household at the top: See A. Bonica, N. McCarty, K. Poole, and H. Rosenthal, “Why Hasn’t Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 3 (Summer 2013): 103–24 (http://voteview.com/jep_BMPR.pdf).
Since 2000, adjusted for inflation: See Drew DeSilver, “For Most Workers, Real Wages Have Barely Budged for Decades,” Fact Tank, Pew Research Center website, October 9, 2014 (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/09/for-most-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/).
As Thomas Piketty has shown: See Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013).
Figure 8 puts the current era into context: See Pavlina R. Tcherneva, “Growth for Whom?,” Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, October 6, 2014, figure: “Distribution of Average Income Growth During Expansions” (http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/op_47.pdf).
In 2001 a Gallup poll found: See Rebecca Riffkin, “In U.S., 67% Dissatisfied with Income, Wealth Distribution,” Gallup website, January 20, 2014 (http://www.gallup.com/poll/166904/dissatisfied-income-wealth-distribution.aspx).
According to the Pew Research Center: See Pew Research Center for the People and the Press/USA Today, “January 2014 Political Survey, Final Topline,” January 15–19, 2014 (http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-questionnaires/1-23-14%20Poverty_Inequality%20topline%20for%20release.pdf).
most Americans were opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership: See Hart Research Associates, “National Survey on Fast-Track Authority for TPP Trade Pact,” January 27, 2014 (http://fasttrackpoll.info/docs/Fast-Track-Survey_Memo.pdf).
most Americans no longer supported trade-opening agreements: “Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Poll: Only the Strongest Obama Supporters Want Him to Have Fast-Track Authority,” International Business Times, January 30, 2014 (http://www.ibtimes.com/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-poll-only-strongest-obama-supporters-want-him-have-fast-track-1552039).
Consumers in China: See Tom Orlik and Bob Davis, “China Falters in Effort to Boost Consumption,” Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2013. Also see Yu Xie and Xiang Zhou, “Income Inequality in Today’s China,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 13, 2014 (http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323664204578607340845518674) (http://www.pnas.org/content/111/19/6928.full).
18 THE DECLINE OF COUNTERVAILING POWER
A study published in the fall of 2014: See Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 3 (2014): 564–81 (http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=/PPS/PPS12_03/S1537592714001595a.pdf&code=9d0e6f096d0928bc535dff80e4f96db5).
“The preferences of the average American”: Ibid., p. 575 (http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=/PPS/PPS12_03/S1537592714001595a.pdf&code=9d0e6f096d0928bc535dff80e4f96db5).
Walter Lippmann argued in his 1922 book: See Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1922).
“It is no longer possible”: Ibid., pp. 248–49.
“The principal balancing force”: David Truman, The Governmental Process (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951), p. 535.
Yale political scientist Robert A. Dahl: See Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956).
passage of the GI Bill of 1944: See Theda Skocpol, Diminished Democracy (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003).
dubbed all this “countervailing power”: See John Kenneth Galbraith, American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952).
“In fact, the support of countervailing power”: Ibid., p. 122.
“Given the existence of private market power”: Ibid., p. 147.
It wasn’t just that big corporations: See Gilens and Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics,” pp. 564–81 (http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=/PPS/PPS12_03/S1537592714001595a.pdf&code=9d0e6f096d0928bc535dff80e4f96db5).
As sociologist Robert Putnam has documented: See Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).
the Koch brothers’ political network: See Matea Gold, “Koch-Backed Political Network, Built to Shield Donors, Raised $400 Million in 2012 Elections,” Washington Post, January 5, 2014 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-political-network-built-to-shield-donors-raised-400-million-in-2012-elections/2014/01/05/9e7cfd9a-719b-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html).
This sum was mor
e than twice: See analysis from Center for Responsive Politics, “Heavy Hitters: Top All Time Donors, 1989–2014,” OpenSecrets.org website (http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php).
That same year corporations spent: See Lee Drutman, The Business of America Is Lobbying (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 17.
In 2012, the richest 0.01 percent: A. Bonica, N. McCarty, K. Poole, and H. Rosenthal, “Why Hasn’t Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 3 (2013): 113 (http://voteview.com/jep_BMPR.pdf).
“Business has to deal with us”: Gregg Easterbrook, “The Business of Politics,” The Atlantic, October 1986 (http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics/polibig/eastbusi.htm).
Under Obama’s watch: See Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, “Dow Jones Industrial Average,” Federal Reserve Economic Data website (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DJIA/).
corporate profits rose to the highest portion: See Floyd Norris, “Corporate Profits Grow and Wages Slide,” New York Times, April 4, 2014 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/business/economy/corporate-profits-grow-ever-larger-as-slice-of-economy-as-wages-slide.html).
only about 3 percent of retiring members of Congress: Elliot Gerson, “To Make America Great Again, We Need to Leave the Country,” The Atlantic, July 10, 2012 (http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/07/to-make-america-great-again-we-need-to-leave-the-country/259653/2/).
“You spend a lot of time on the phone”: Listen to Senator Murphy’s comments in the opening remarks of the video “Purchasing Power: Money, Politics, and Inequality: Post-Conference,” Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies (http://isps.yale.edu/node/21022#.VJIBCYrF92c).
political contributions by the richest one-hundredth of 1 percent: Bonica, McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal, “Why Hasn’t Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality?,” p. 112 (http://voteview.com/jep_BMPR.pdf).
In 1980, the top 0.01 percent: Ibid (http://voteview.com/jep_BMPR.pdf).