The Upside Of Inequality

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The Upside of Inequality

Author : Edward Conard
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1595231234
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (952 download)

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Book Synopsis The Upside of Inequality by : Edward Conard

Download or read book The Upside of Inequality written by Edward Conard and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scourge of America’s economy isn't the success of the 1 percent—quite the opposite. The real problem is the government’s well-meaning but misguided attempt to reduce the payoffs for success. Four years ago, Edward Conard wrote a controversial bestseller, Unintended Consequences, which set the record straight on the financial crisis of 2008 and explained why U.S. growth was accelerating relative to other high-wage economies. He warned that loose monetary policy would produce neither growth nor inflation, that expansionary fiscal policy would have no lasting benefit on growth in the aftermath of the crisis, and that ill-advised attempts to rein in banking based on misplaced blame would slow an already weak recovery. Unfortunately, he was right. Now he’s back with another provocative argument: that our current obsession with income inequality is misguided and will only slow growth further. Using fact-based logic, Conard tracks the implications of an economy now constrained by both its capacity for risk-taking and by a shortage of properly trained talent—rather than by labor or capital, as was the case historically. He uses this fresh perspective to challenge the conclusions of liberal economists like Larry Summers and Joseph Stiglitz and the myths of “crony capitalism” more broadly. Instead, he argues that the growing wealth of most successful Americans is not to blame for the stagnating incomes of the middle and working classes. If anything, the success of the 1 percent has put upward pressure on employment and wages. Conard argues that high payoffs for success motivate talent to get the training and take the risks that gradually loosen the constraints to growth. Well-meaning attempts to decrease inequality through redistribution dull these incentives, gradually hurting not just the 1 percent but everyone else as well. Conard outlines a plan for growing middle- and working-class wages in an economy with a near infinite supply of labor that is shifting from capital-intensive manufacturing to knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven fields. He urges us to stop blaming the success of the 1 percent for slow wage growth and embrace the upside of inequality: faster growth and greater prosperity for everyone.

Summary and Analysis of The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class

Author : Worth Books
Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 1504045955
Total Pages : 31 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis Summary and Analysis of The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class by : Worth Books

Download or read book Summary and Analysis of The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class written by Worth Books and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summary and Analysis of The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class Based on the Book by Edward Conard So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The Upside of Inequality tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Edward Conard’s book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. This short summary and analysis of The Upside of Inequality includes: Historical context Chapter-by-chapter overviews Important quotes Fascinating trivia Glossary of terms Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work About The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class by Edward Conard: New York Times–bestselling author Edward Conard argues in favor of an American economic system that results in massive income inequality. Breaking down the causes of inequality while dispelling many of the myths surrounding stagnating wages and financial disparity for the the lower and middle classes, Conard dismisses the call for wealth redistribution. He, instead, makes the case for lower taxes, less regulation of banks, restricted immigration, and lower trade deficits. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.

Unintended Consequences

Author : Edward Conard
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1591846307
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (918 download)

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Book Synopsis Unintended Consequences by : Edward Conard

Download or read book Unintended Consequences written by Edward Conard and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-04-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was our country’s economic success before the Crash of ‘08 built on false pretenses? Did we simply borrow and spend too much, or was something else really going on? The conventional wisdom now accuses Wall Street and the mortgage industry of using predatory tactics to seduce homeowners. Meanwhile, average Americans are blamed for increasing consumption to unsustainable levels by borrowing recklessly. And the tax policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations are blamed for encouraging reckless risk-taking. Edward Conard disagrees. In an attempt to set the record straight he presents a fascinating new case for how the economy really works, why the U.S. has outperformed other countries, what caused the financial crisis, and what improvements might better protect our economy without damaging growth.

Behind the Label

Author : Edna Bonacich
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520925595
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis Behind the Label by : Edna Bonacich

Download or read book Behind the Label written by Edna Bonacich and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000-06-28 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a study crucial to our understanding of American social inequality, Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum investigate the return of sweatshops to the apparel industry, especially in Los Angeles. The "new" sweatshops, they say, need to be understood in terms of the decline in the American welfare state and its strong unions and the rise in global and flexible production. Apparel manufacturers now have the incentive to move production to wherever low-wage labor can be found, while maintaining arm's-length contractual relations that protect them from responsibility. The flight of the industry has led to a huge rise in apparel imports to the United States and to a decline in employment. Los Angeles, however, remains a puzzling exception in that its industry employment has continued to grow, to the point where L.A. is the largest center of apparel production in the nation. Not only the availability of low-wage immigrant (often undocumented) workers but also the focus on moderately priced, fashion-sensitive women's wear makes this possible. Behind the Label examines the players in the L.A. apparel industry, including manufacturers, retailers, contractors, and workers, evaluating the maldistribution of wealth and power. The authors explore government and union efforts to eradicate sweatshops while limiting the flight to Mexico and elsewhere, and they conclude with a description of the growing antisweatshop movement. Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 2000

The Captured Economy

Author : Brink Lindsey
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190627786
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis The Captured Economy by : Brink Lindsey

Download or read book The Captured Economy written by Brink Lindsey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-13 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years, America has been plagued by slow economic growth and increasing inequality. In The Captured Economy, Brink Lindsey and Steven M. Teles identify a common factor behind these twin ills: breakdowns in democratic governance that allow wealthy special interests to capture the policymaking process for their own benefit. They document the proliferation of regressive regulations that redistribute wealth and income up the economic scale while stifling entrepreneurship and innovation. They also detail the most important cases of regulatory barriers that have worked to shield the powerful from the rigors of competition, thereby inflating their incomes: subsidies for the financial sector's excessive risk taking, overprotection of copyrights and patents, favoritism toward incumbent businesses through occupational licensing schemes, and the NIMBY-led escalation of land use controls that drive up rents for everyone else. An original and counterintuitive interpretation of the forces driving inequality and stagnation, The Captured Economy will be necessary reading for anyone concerned about America's mounting economic problems and how to improve the social tensions they are sparking.

Dream Hoarders

Author : Richard Reeves
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815735499
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Dream Hoarders by : Richard Reeves

Download or read book Dream Hoarders written by Richard Reeves and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dream Hoarders sparked a national conversation on the dangerous separation between the upper middle class and everyone else. Now in paperback and newly updated for the age of Trump, Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard Reeves is continuing to challenge the class system in America. In America, everyone knows that the top 1 percent are the villains. The rest of us, the 99 percent—we are the good guys. Not so, argues Reeves. The real class divide is not between the upper class and the upper middle class: it is between the upper middle class and everyone else. The separation of the upper middle class from everyone else is both economic and social, and the practice of “opportunity hoarding”—gaining exclusive access to scarce resources—is especially prevalent among parents who want to perpetuate privilege to the benefit of their children. While many families believe this is just good parenting, it is actually hurting others by reducing their chances of securing these opportunities. There is a glass floor created for each affluent child helped by his or her wealthy, stable family. That glass floor is a glass ceiling for another child. Throughout Dream Hoarders, Reeves explores the creation and perpetuation of opportunity hoarding, and what should be done to stop it, including controversial solutions such as ending legacy admissions to school. He offers specific steps toward reducing inequality and asks the upper middle class to pay for it. Convinced of their merit, members of the upper middle class believes they are entitled to those tax breaks and hoarded opportunities. After all, they aren't the 1 percent. The national obsession with the super rich allows the upper middle class to convince themselves that they are just like the rest of America. In Dream Hoarders, Reeves argues that in many ways, they are worse, and that changes in policy and social conscience are the only way to fix the broken system.

Unbound

Author : Heather Boushey
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0674919319
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis Unbound by : Heather Boushey

Download or read book Unbound written by Heather Boushey and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many fear that efforts to address inequality will undermine the economy as a whole. But the opposite is true: rising inequality has become a drag on growth and an impediment to market competition. Heather Boushey breaks down the problem and argues that we can preserve our nation's economic traditions while promoting shared economic growth.

Automating Inequality

Author : Virginia Eubanks
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1466885963
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Automating Inequality by : Virginia Eubanks

Download or read book Automating Inequality written by Virginia Eubanks and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER: The 2018 McGannon Center Book Prize and shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice The New York Times Book Review: "Riveting." Naomi Klein: "This book is downright scary." Ethan Zuckerman, MIT: "Should be required reading." Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body: "A must-read." Astra Taylor, author of The People's Platform: "The single most important book about technology you will read this year." Cory Doctorow: "Indispensable." A powerful investigative look at data-based discrimination—and how technology affects civil and human rights and economic equity The State of Indiana denies one million applications for healthcare, foodstamps and cash benefits in three years—because a new computer system interprets any mistake as “failure to cooperate.” In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victims of abuse or neglect. Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems—rather than humans—control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. The book is full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, from a woman in Indiana whose benefits are literally cut off as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile. The U.S. has always used its most cutting-edge science and technology to contain, investigate, discipline and punish the destitute. Like the county poorhouse and scientific charity before them, digital tracking and automated decision-making hide poverty from the middle-class public and give the nation the ethical distance it needs to make inhumane choices: which families get food and which starve, who has housing and who remains homeless, and which families are broken up by the state. In the process, they weaken democracy and betray our most cherished national values. This deeply researched and passionate book could not be more timely.

The Great Divergence

Author : Timothy Noah
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1608196348
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (81 download)

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Book Synopsis The Great Divergence by : Timothy Noah

Download or read book The Great Divergence written by Timothy Noah and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past three decades, America has steadily become a nation of haves and have-nots. Our incomes are increasingly unequal. This steady growing apart is often mentioned as a troubling indicator by scholars and policy analysts, though seldom addressed by politicians. What economics Nobelist Paul Krugman terms "the Great Divergence" has till now been treated as little more than a talking point, a rhetorical club to be wielded in ideological battles. But this Great Divergence may be the most important change in this country during our lifetimes-a drastic, elemental change in the character of American society, and not at all for the better. The inequality gap is much more than a left-right hot potato-its causes and consequences call for a patient, non-partisan exploration. Timothy Noah's The Great Divergence, based on his award-winning series of articles for Slate, surveys the roots of the wealth gap, drawing on the best thinking of contemporary economists and political scientists. Noah also explores potential solutions to the problem, and explores why the growing rich-poor divide has sparked remarkably little public anger, in contrast to social unrest that prevailed before the New Deal. The Great Divergence is poised to be one of the most talked-about books of 2012, a jump-start to the national conversation about the shape of American society in the 21st century, and a work that will help frame the debate in a Presidential election year.

The Upside of Down

Author : Thomas Homer-Dixon
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 0307375870
Total Pages : 450 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The Upside of Down by : Thomas Homer-Dixon

Download or read book The Upside of Down written by Thomas Homer-Dixon and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-02-05 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the #1 bestselling and Governor General’s Literary Award-winning The Ingenuity Gap – an essential addition to the bookshelf of every thinking person with a stake in our world and our civilization. This is a groundbreaking, essential book for our times. Thomas Homer-Dixon brings to bear his formidable understanding of the urgent problems that confront our world to clarify their scope and deep causes. The Upside of Down provides a vivid picture of the immense stresses that are simultaneously converging on our societies and threatening a breakdown that would profoundly shake civilization. It shows, too, how we can choose a better route into the future. With the immediacy that characterized his award-winning international bestseller, The Ingenuity Gap, Homer-Dixon takes us on a remarkable journey – from the fall of the Roman empire to the devastation of the 9/11 attacks in New York, from Toronto in the 2003 blackout to the ancient temples of Lebanon and the wildfires of California. Incorporating the newest findings from an astonishing array of disciplines, he argues that the great stresses our world is experiencing – global warming, energy scarcity, population imbalances, and widening gaps between rich and poor – can’t be looked at independently. As these stresses combine and converge, the risk of breakdown rises. The first signs are appearing in the wastelands of the Arctic, the mud-clogged streets of Gonaïves, Haiti, and the volatile regions of the Middle East and Asia. But while the consequences of denial in our more perilous world are dire, Homer-Dixon makes clear that we can use our emerging understanding of the complex systems in which we live to avoid catastrophic collapse in a way the Roman empire could not. This vitally important new book shows how, in the face of breakdown, we can still provide for the renewal of our global civilization. We are creating the conditions for catastrophe, but by understanding the underlying principles that make human and natural systems resilient – and by working together to put those principles into effect – we can still limit the severity of collapse and foster regeneration, innovation, and renewal.

Humans Need Not Apply

Author : Jerry Kaplan
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300216416
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Humans Need Not Apply by : Jerry Kaplan

Download or read book Humans Need Not Apply written by Jerry Kaplan and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “intriguing, insightful” look at how algorithms and robots could lead to social unrest—and how to avoid it (The Economist, Books of the Year). After decades of effort, researchers are finally cracking the code on artificial intelligence. Society stands on the cusp of unprecedented change, driven by advances in robotics, machine learning, and perception powering systems that rival or exceed human capabilities. Driverless cars, robotic helpers, and intelligent agents that promote our interests have the potential to usher in a new age of affluence and leisure—but as AI expert and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jerry Kaplan warns, the transition may be protracted and brutal unless we address the two great scourges of the modern developed world: volatile labor markets and income inequality. In Humans Need Not Apply, he proposes innovative, free-market adjustments to our economic system and social policies to avoid an extended period of social turmoil. His timely and accessible analysis of the promises and perils of AI is a must-read for business leaders and policy makers on both sides of the aisle. “A reminder that AI systems don’t need red laser eyes to be dangerous.”—Times Higher Education Supplement “Kaplan…sidesteps the usual arguments of techno-optimism and dystopia, preferring to go for pragmatic solutions to a shrinking pool of jobs.”—Financial Times

Poverty and Power

Author : Edward Royce
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538167573
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis Poverty and Power by : Edward Royce

Download or read book Poverty and Power written by Edward Royce and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Poverty and Power examines structural inequality in American society by focusing on the persistence of poverty, resulting from failings of our political, economic, cultural, and social systems"--

Why Inequality Matters

Author : Shlomi Segall
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107129818
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Inequality Matters by : Shlomi Segall

Download or read book Why Inequality Matters written by Shlomi Segall and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-21 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores and defends the view that inequality is intrinsically bad when and because it leads to arbitrary disadvantage.

The American Way of Poverty

Author : Sasha Abramsky
Publisher : Nation Books
ISBN 13 : 1568587260
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (685 download)

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Book Synopsis The American Way of Poverty by : Sasha Abramsky

Download or read book The American Way of Poverty written by Sasha Abramsky and published by Nation Books. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abramsky shows how poverty - a massive political scandal - is dramatically changing in the wake of the Great Recession.

The Sum of Us

Author : Heather McGhee
Publisher : One World
ISBN 13 : 0525509577
Total Pages : 450 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sum of Us by : Heather McGhee

Download or read book The Sum of Us written by Heather McGhee and published by One World. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color. WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, BookRiot, Library Journal “This is the book I’ve been waiting for.”—Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist Look for the author’s new podcast, The Sum of Us, based on this book! Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out? McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare. But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: the benefits we gain when people come together across race to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own. The Sum of Us is not only a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here but also a heartfelt message, delivered with startling empathy, from a black woman to a multiracial America. It leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game. LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

World Inequality Report 2022

Author : Lucas Chancel
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674273567
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis World Inequality Report 2022 by : Lucas Chancel

Download or read book World Inequality Report 2022 written by Lucas Chancel and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-11 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World Inequality Report 2022 is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of global trends in inequality, providing cutting-edge information about income and wealth inequality and also pioneering data about the history of inequality, gender inequality, environmental inequalities, and trends in international tax reform and redistribution.

The Divide

Author : Jason Hickel
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1473539277
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (735 download)

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Book Synopsis The Divide by : Jason Hickel

Download or read book The Divide written by Jason Hickel and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-05-04 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ________________ As seen on Sky News All Out Politics ‘There’s no understanding global inequality without understanding its history. In The Divide, Jason Hickel brilliantly lays it out, layer upon layer, until you are left reeling with the outrage of it all.’ - Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics · The richest eight people control more wealth than the poorest half of the world combined. · Today, 60 per cent of the world’s population lives on less than $5 a day. · Though global real GDP has nearly tripled since 1980, 1.1 billion more people are now living in poverty. For decades we have been told a story: that development is working, that poverty is a natural phenomenon and will be eradicated through aid by 2030. But just because it is a comforting tale doesn’t make it true. Poor countries are poor because they are integrated into the global economic system on unequal terms, and aid only helps to hide this. Drawing on pioneering research and years of first-hand experience, The Divide tracks the evolution of global inequality – from the expeditions of Christopher Columbus to the present day – offering revelatory answers to some of humanity’s greatest problems. It is a provocative, urgent and ultimately uplifting account of how the world works, and how it can change for the better.