Description
Book SynopsisThis data-driven book offers insight into the fallacy of widespread opportunity, the fate of the middle class, and the mechanisms that perpetuate income disparity.
Trade ReviewFormisano has written an obituary for a way of American life that is coming to an end. Times Higher Education
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Web of Inequality
The Founders' Vision
American Think They Live in Sweden
The Middle Class and Poverty
Rising Public Awareness
The Great Recession
Some Are More Unequal Than Others
2. The Myth of Opportunity
Mobility
Education
The For-Profits
Eating Tuition
Rise of the Adjuncts
Death of a Contingent
3. The Shrinking Middle Class
The Lost Decade
The Geographic Dimension
Running in Place and Falling Behind
Jobs and Wages
Wage-Productivity Gap
" Why Screwing Unions Screws the Entire Middle Class"
Staying Afloat / Sinking in the New Economy
4. Keeping the Rich (Filthy) Rich and the Poor (Dirt) Poor
Rent Seeking and George Washington Plunkitt
Two Tax Systems
Corporate Taxes and CEO Compensation
The 47 Percent
Keeping the Poor Poor
Minimum-Wage Welfare Queens
5. Inequality, Life, and Quality of Life
A Tale of Two Counties
Struggling to Make Ends Meet
Food Insecurity, or Hunger amid Moocher Agribusiness
Inequality and Health
Two Americas?
The Spirit Level
Affluenza versus the "Hidden Prosperity of the Poor"
6. Political Inequality
Participation and Citizens United
Political Polarization
Disenfranchisement
The Assault on Voting
The Assault on Voting, Continued
Prisons and Felons
Deferred Maintenance and Inequality
7. The Fracturing of America
Americans Do Care about Inequality
The Founders Cared about Inequality
Public Opinion
The Constitutional Stacked Deck
The Decline of "the Commons"
Conclusion
Antipoverty Programs
The Undeserving Poor
The Undeserving Rich
Plutocracy on the March, Democracy Trampled Underfoot
Notes
Index
