Inequality

Winner of the Richard A. Lester Award for the Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics, Princeton University An Economist Best Economics and Business Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year Inequality is one of our most urgent social problems. Curbed in the decades after World War II, it has recently returned with a vengeance. We all know the scale of the problem—talk about the 99% and the 1% is entrenched in public debate—but there has been little discussion of what we can do but despair. According to the distinguished economist Anthony Atkinson, however, we can do much more than skeptics imagine. “[Atkinson] sets forth a list of concrete, innovative, and persuasive proposals meant to show that alternatives still exist, that the battle for social progress and equality must reclaim its legitimacy, here and now… Witty, elegant, profound, this book should be read.” —Thomas Piketty, New York Review of Books “An uncomfortable affront to our reigning triumphalists. [Atkinson’s] premise is straightforward: inequality is not unavoidable, a fact of life like the weather, but the product of conscious human behavior. —Owen Jones, The Guardian

Winner of the Richard A. Lester Award for the Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics, Princeton University An Economist Best Economics and Business Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year Inequality is one of our most urgent social problems. Curbed in the decades after World War II, it has recently returned with a vengeance. We all know the scale of the problem—talk about the 99% and the 1% is entrenched in public debate—but there has been little discussion of what we can do but despair. According to the distinguished economist Anthony Atkinson, however, we can do much more than skeptics imagine. “[Atkinson] sets forth a list of concrete, innovative, and persuasive proposals meant to show that alternatives still exist, that the battle for social progress and equality must reclaim its legitimacy, here and now… Witty, elegant, profound, this book should be read.” —Thomas Piketty, New York Review of Books “An uncomfortable affront to our reigning triumphalists. [Atkinson’s] premise is straightforward: inequality is not unavoidable, a fact of life like the weather, but the product of conscious human behavior. —Owen Jones, The Guardian

We are consistently bombarded with news and hard evidence that the super-rich are getting richer, leaving the rest of us behind. At the same time, many of us live lives that are materially richer than what was possible for most people throughout human history. We've never had it so good, yet it often feels like we don't have enough. This book reconciles that tension, placing the vices of capitalism in conversation with its virtues. Séamus A. Power explores how people comprehend and experience two global stories of economic growth – and what this means for the future of capitalism and humanity in an era of polarization, poverty, and climate change. The volume charts three possible futures for economic inequality and capitalism, and advocates for a world where poverty is eradicated, economic systems are made fairer, and the achievement of human capabilities is fully realized.

We are consistently bombarded with news and hard evidence that the super-rich are getting richer, leaving the rest of us behind. At the same time, many of us live lives that are materially richer than what was possible for most people throughout human history. We've never had it so good, yet it often feels like we don't have enough. This book reconciles that tension, placing the vices of capitalism in conversation with its virtues. Séamus A. Power explores how people comprehend and experience two global stories of economic growth – and what this means for the future of capitalism and humanity in an era of polarization, poverty, and climate change. The volume charts three possible futures for economic inequality and capitalism, and advocates for a world where poverty is eradicated, economic systems are made fairer, and the achievement of human capabilities is fully realized.