"I am the great-grandson of the Chicago meatpacker Oscar Mayer. I won the lottery at birth."
"When I was 16, my father told me I would inherit enough wealth to pay for college and beyond. The sum was significant enough that I wouldn't have to work, but my father encouraged me to pursue a career as if the money wasn't there."
"Between the ages of 20 and 25, I attended college, studied history and economics..."
"During these years, I also watched the value of the wealth in my name literally double, even though I was making withdrawals to pay my college tuition. I had a front-row seat to wealth creating more wealth."
[At the age of 26] "A few months later I drove to the National Bank of Detroit and signed the paperwork to transfer all the funds in my name to four grant-making foundations."
"I gave away the money, but a lot of my privilege was hardwired."
Book Part Titles:
BORN ON THIRD BASE
SEEING OUR COMMONWEALTH
UNDERSTANDING ADVANTAGE
UNNECESSARY SIDE TRIPS
WEALTH, COME HOME
THE INVITATIONS
BORN ON THIRD BASE
SEEING OUR COMMONWEALTH
UNDERSTANDING ADVANTAGE
UNNECESSARY SIDE TRIPS
WEALTH, COME HOME
THE INVITATIONS
"The extreme levels of inequality in our society are personally painful to behold."
What Do I Mean by Wealthy?
"We operate largely on caricatures and stereotypes that the wealthy look like Monopoly Men, chubby little plutocrats wearing top hats. It is strategically important to understand the different segments within the wealthy."
Affluentville is home to the top 10 percent of wealth holders whose wealth ranges from $680,000 to $3 million. [modified from Robert Frank's 2007 book, Richistan...]
Lower Richistan includes households with wealth between $3 million and $10 million. They are the top 3 percent of wealth holders.
Middle Richistan is the top 1 percent and also includes the top 0.1 percent.
Upper Richistan is the top 0.01 percent.
"We operate largely on caricatures and stereotypes that the wealthy look like Monopoly Men, chubby little plutocrats wearing top hats. It is strategically important to understand the different segments within the wealthy."
Affluentville is home to the top 10 percent of wealth holders whose wealth ranges from $680,000 to $3 million. [modified from Robert Frank's 2007 book, Richistan...]
Lower Richistan includes households with wealth between $3 million and $10 million. They are the top 3 percent of wealth holders.
Middle Richistan is the top 1 percent and also includes the top 0.1 percent.
Upper Richistan is the top 0.01 percent.
"In the pages ahead, I invite my fellow wealthy to "come home," to make a commitment to place, to put down a stake, and to work for an economy that works for everyone. Coming home means sharing our wealth and paying our fair share of taxes."
"In order to build these alliances, we must recognize the 1 percent that lives in all of us - the ways in which most of us in the United States have privileges and advantages compared with others around the world."
"Growing scrutiny is focused on US-based transnational corporations that incorporate subsidiaries in tax havens and pretend, for tax purposes, to generate profits in these countries."
"The worst offenders include Apple, American Express, Nike, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, Google, and Bank of America."
"The worst offenders include Apple, American Express, Nike, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, Google, and Bank of America."
Chuck Collins is the Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits Inequality.org.
Here is an example newsletter:
featuring "PETULANT PLUTOCRAT OF THE WEEK," Sam Bankman-Fried (before his arrest), also, GREED AT A GLANCE, Kylie Jenner's 17 minute private jet flight.