When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United states, the wealth gap between rich and poor was already very wide. The top 10% of families — those who had at least $942,000 — held 76% of total wealth. The average amount of wealth in this group was $4 million. And the entire bottom half of the population had just 1% of the total wealth pie, this gap continues to rise and when the statistical scope accounts for race, the disparity worsens.
Chuck Collins, Director of the Program On Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies, traces the history of the wealth gap in his work.
Is Universal Basic Income, or UBI, an answer to the wealth gap, and to poverty? Or is it the tech community’s neoliberal dream? For this answer we hear from the producers from Upstream.
Featuring:
Chuck Collins, Director of the Program On Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies
Doug Henwood – Economist, Journalist
Credits:
Host: RJ Lozada
Producers: Monica Lopez, Marie Choi, RJ Lozada, Anita Johnson
Upstream Podcast Producers: Della Z Duncan, Robert R Raymond
Executive Director: Lisa Rudman
Web Editor and Audience Engagement Director: Sabine Blaizin
Development Associate: Vera Tykulsker
Special thanks to Upstream Podcast.
More information
Born on Third Base, by Chuck Collins: https://www.chelseagr
inequality.org : inequality.or
United for a Fair Economy: faireconomy.org
Upstream Podcast: upstreampodcast.org
The Color of Money – Mehrsa Baradaran: http://www.hup.harv
Economic Policy Institute, The racial wealth gap: How African-Americans have been shortchanged out of the materials to build wealth: https://www.epi.org/bl