Inequality and the Common Good

“By the end of this book you may not be able to explain how the Federal Reserve Bank works, but you will be very clear about the moral values that measure economic health.”

It is twenty years since the U.S. Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter on the U.S. economy. Since then striking changes have occurred as the U.S. has become dramatically more unequal in terms of wealth, income, and opportunity. The signs are everywhere, from the fantastic salaries of corporate CEOs, the skyrocketing rates of personal and public debt, tax cuts for the wealthiest, increased job insecurity, and shrinking public services. Catholic social teaching supplies a set of criteria for evaluating the moral health of an economic system, though for most people these principles are a well-kept secret. In this clear and penetrating book, Chuck Collins and Mary Wright draw on these principles to evaluate our economy and lay out practical steps toward establishing an economy “as if people mattered.”

Hard-hitting and insightful. - The Beacon

This updated edition of the widely touted Economic Apartheid in America looks at the causes and manifestations of wealth disparities in the United States, including tax policy in light of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and recent corporate scandals.

Praised by Sojurners as “a clear blueprint on how to combat growing inequality,” Economic Apartheid in America provides “much-needed groundwork for more democratic discussion and participation in economic life” (Tikkun). With “a wealth of eye-opening data” (The Beacon) focusing on the decline of organized labor and civic institutions, the battle over global trade, and the growing inequality of income and wages, it argues that most Americans are shut out of the discussion of the rules governing their economic lives. Accessible and engaging and illustrated throughout with charts, graphs, and political cartoons, the book lays out a comprehensive plan for action.

Not so long ago, corporate America was widely respected. Our products set the standards for the world; corporations bore a fair share of the tax burden; customers, workers, and communities were loyal to companies like GM, GE, Ford, and Procter & Gamble, and to a fair degree that loyalty was reciprocated. Not anymore. Recent headlines tell the story: Bank of America Penalized $464,000,000 for Defrauding Mutual Fund Investors; Citibank to pay $1,600,000 to Twenty-Six States for Engaging in Consumer Deception; General Electric Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Pentagon, Pays $69,000,000 in Fines. And on, and on.

Taking Back the Corporation tells us what to do about it. Among many useful resources and references for activists, it includes a special toolkit for reforming corporations and provides a primer on corporations, organizing, contacting the media, and drafting local ordinances.