Inequality and the Common Good » Event

Reversing the Second Gilded Age

The Working Group on Extreme Inequality discusses bold proposals for reversing extreme inequality at Take Back America.

This is a session hosted by The Working Group on Extreme Inequality. It is part of the Take Back America National Conference from March 17-19 in Washington, DC.

A century ago, during America¹s first Gilded Age, our wealthiest 1% percent owned an estimated 44% percent of the nation's private wealth. That intense concentration of wealth and power corrupted our democratic institutions and fostered an instability that ultimately left us tragically mired in a Great Depression. Now, we're neck-deep in a second Gilded Age, with America's richest 1% owning more than 34% percent of the nation's wealth. This session will discuss bold proposals to reverse extreme inequality and broaden prosperity.

Panelists

• Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller Nickel and Dimed. A frequent contributor to The New York Times, Harpers, and The Progressive, she is a contributing writer to Time magazine. She is co-founder of United Professionals, a national non-partisan organization for white collar workers.
• William H. Gates Sr. is a national leader in the effort to preserve the federal estate tax. He is coauthor of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes (Beacon Press).  He is a retired attorney and lives in Seattle, WA.
• James Webb (invited) is a U.S. Senator from Virginia.  His is a former combat Marine, Secretary of the U.S. Navy and an author of several books.  His new book, A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America, will be published in May.
• Chuck Collins, Moderator, is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and coordinator of the Working Group on Extreme Inequality, a broad alliance of religious, business, labor, and other groups that aims to reverse the second Gilded Age.  He is the  co-author of The Moral Measure of the Economy (Orbis)

You are welcome to attend this session only, or the entire conference. Register today!