Tootfinder

"At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/16/super-rich-inequality-politicians-extreme-wealth?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

AI-Led Growth Conceals an Economy Built on Debt and Inequality https://jacobin.com/2026/01/artificial-intelligence-economy-debt-inequality/

AI-Led Growth Conceals an Economy Built on Debt and Inequality
Despite rising inequality, poor job numbers, and Donald Trump’s mass deportations, the economy grew by a remarkable 4.3% last year, mostly thanks to the AI industry. This success masks an economy highly dependent on debt and state subsidies.

In 1920, Charles Garland,
the wealthy heir to a banking fortune, made newspaper headlines for doing the unthinkable:
he declined to accept an inheritance of more than a million dollars from his late father’s estate. 
Garland was disillusioned by the era’s gross #inequality
— the top 10 percent of American income earners took in half the country’s annual national income.
Garl…

‘The Radical Fund’: How a spurned inheritance fueled progressive change
In his new book, Yale’s John Fabian Witt details how a little-known foundation funded by a wealthy banking heir sought to bring about a more just society in the first half of the 20th century.

A new PhD programme “migration, time and urban inequalities” run by seven European universities (including @…) has 15 fully funded PhD positions open: https://www.migrationtime.eu…

A fully funded European PhD training programme (2026–2029)
MITIME is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network focusing on how time shapes migration, inequality, and urban life in post-industrial Europe. We train early-stage researchers in cutting-edge theory, methods and transferable skills, and innovate approac

The Guardian view on the inequality emergency: why a Nobel prize winner's warning must be heeded (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/30/the-guardian-view-on-the-inequality-emergency-why-a-nobel-prize-winners-warning-must-be-heeded
http://www.memeorandum.com/251130/p57#a251130p57

Why are all photos beginning to look like AI slopp?

Richest 0.001% Now Own Three Times More Wealth Than Poorest Half of Humanity Combined | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/world-in

When the working class organizes on the basis of solidarity and direct action, workers and communities can collectively manage and control the means of production, while federations of workers and local communities coordinate production and social life through mutual aid and federalist principles, without bosses or the state.
In an era marked by automation, precarity, and deepening inequality, the struggle for workers’ self-management, economic democracy, and social liberation remains …

🤑 Seeing rich people increases support for wealth redistribution, study finds
#inequality

Seeing rich people increases support for wealth redistribution, study finds
If people do not observe inequality, they are less likely to favor policies that redistribute wealth, such as taxation—but they are also more satisfied with their lot, according to online experiments involving 1,440 US-based participants.

I wrote a bit about grief. Not for a person but the world that was.
(Original title: The World That Was)
https://tante.cc/2026/02/06/the-world-that-was/

The World That Was
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the world. I mean, look at … everything. Massive ongoing wars everywhere, Fascism on the rise, exploding inequality. Shit is fucked up and more fucked up on a global scale than it ever was in my life time (I was born in 1979). And with the media landscape and […]

"In 1990, 943 million people [in China] lived on less than $3 a day measured in 2021 dollars – 83% of the population, according to the World Bank. By 2019, the number was brought down to zero. Unfortunately, the United States was not as successful. More than 4 million Americans – 1.25% of the population – must make ends meet with less than $3 a day, more than three times as many as 35 years ago."

China has brought millions out of poverty.
The US has not – by choice
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/china-us-poverty-income-inequality?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Researching inequality – Northampton and the Welfare State https://edintone.com/northampton_1913-24/ Two studies of Northampton in 1913 and 1924 give us a detailed view of working-class life

Researching inequality - Northampton and the Welfare State - Miscellanea Edintone
Two studies of Northampton in 1913 and 1924 give us a detailed view of working-class life and economic conditions in on the eve of World War 1 and the somewhat better situation in the early 1920s.

How AI automation can fulfill Thomas Piketty's predictions on rising economic inequality, and why highly progressive taxes on capital can help slow the spiral (Philosopher Count)
https://philiptrammell.substack.com/p/capital-in-the-22nd-century

Capital in the 22nd Century
Piketty was wrong about the past. He’s probably right about the future.

"The relationship between power, poverty, inequality, and lack of political participation is mirrored in the damage to the natural world. They cannot be divorced from each other."
—Yale School of the Environment professor Gerald Torres ’77 J.D. writing in the new issue of Reflections https://

The Laffer Curve is and has always been BS. It exists solely to justify increasing inequality.
https://youtu.be/lrO9VpQCXZU

Remainder terms and sharp quantitative stability for a nonlocal Sobolev inequality on the Heisenberg group
Wenjing Chen, Zexi Wang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.08375 https://

From The Tyee
BC Green Leader Emily Lowan says the party needs to work ‘on building power’
BC Green Leader Emily Lowan says the party needs to work ‘on building power with working people, renters and young people across BC and focusing in on this message of wealth, inequality and driving forward long-term solutions.’
Photo via BC Greens.

Billionaires are richer than ever, says Oxfam
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/19/billionaires-richer-than-ever-oxfam-inequality-report.html

Did California lose Larry Page?
The Google and Alphabet cofounder, who left day-to-day operations in 2019,
has seen his net worth soar in the years since
—from around $50 billion at the time of his departure to somewhere approximating $260 billion today.
(Leaving his job clearly didn’t hurt his wallet.)
Last year, a proposed ballot initiative in California threatened billionaires like Page with a one-time 5 percent wealth tax
—prompting some of them to con…

Silicon Valley Billionaires Panic Over California’s Proposed Wealth Tax
Larry Page’s apparent Florida move highlights how seriously the ultra-rich are taking a one-time tax aimed at extreme wealth inequality.

The #MathReviews math review of my latest joint paper 🐘 in analysis has appeared! 📙
link for subscribers=
https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/article?mr=4929931

Sweden has had a stated goal of economic equality for 20 yrs, but the income gap between men and women remains the same. Capital is the blind spot. Women own less, save less and therefore benefit from significantly lower capital returns than men.
Additionally, capital is taxed less than wages which further reinforces the inequality. As long as Sweden's rules put more resistance in women's paths than in men's, capital, power and security will primarily benefit men.
Fro…

Ny vitbok gör politiken svaret skyldig: Halvera inkomstgapet till 2030 | Fredrika Bremer-förbundet
Inkomstgapet mellan kvinnor och män har varit oförändrat i tre decennier. Kvinnor har fortfarande bara cirka 80 procent av mäns disponibla inkomster. Nu släpper Fredrika Bremer-förbundet vitboken "Därför blir män rikare än kvinnor" som visar varför vi står och stampar, och vad som krävs för att vända utvecklingen. Vitbokens forskarteam lyfter 20 skarpa åtgärder för att minska den ekonomiska ojämställdheten. Målet är tydligt: inkomstgapet ska kunna halveras till år 2030.

Cancel billionaires
https://mastodon.social/@jmcrookston/115635779318419465

A timely (timeless really) and needed corrective to the #GrowthDogma that was present in almost every commentary on yesterday's #Budget2025, from @…
Why…

Why the UK should look beyond growth to a ‘new economics’ that works for all
Jasper Kenter, Professorial Research Fellow, Deliberative Ecological Economics, Aberystwyth University The UK budget is usually a story of growth forecasts, borrowing levels and fiscal discipline. But ahead of this month’s high-stakes event, growth has been slower than expected. At the same time, as households struggle with living costs, the climate crisis intensifies and inequality persists, […]

Researching inequality – Northampton and the Welfare State https://edintone.com/northampton_1913-24/ Two studies of Northampton in 1913 and 1924 give us a detailed view of working-class life. @…

Researching inequality - Northampton and the Welfare State - Miscellanea Edintone
Two studies of Northampton in 1913 and 1924 give us a detailed view of working-class life and economic conditions in on the eve of World War 1 and the somewhat better situation in the early 1920s.

The exit economy is here. Black Women are paying the highest price (Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/11/22/the-exit-economy-black-women-labor-force-participation-inequality/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251123/p36#a251123p36

#Chronic #hunger affects 673 million people
– about 8.2% of the world
– driven by poverty, broken food systems & inequality.
GIJN’s new guide shows how to dig into systemic failures:

Global Investigative Journalism Network (@gijn.org)
Chronic hunger affects 673 million people – about 8.2% of the – driven by poverty, broken food systems & inequality. GIJN’s new guide shows how to dig into systemic failures: https://twp.ai/9PXveB

Polymarket and other bet-on-anything sites are very bad for democracy. There's too much opportunity for inside trading, which will further widen the income inequality gap.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gn93292do?utm_source=flipboard&u…

A prediction market user made $436,000 betting on Maduro's downfall
The account placed a $32,000 wager just before Trump announced the Venezuelan leader was in US custody.

Most see civilization, hence inequality, as a tragic necessity. Some dream of returning to a past utopia, of finding an industrial equivalent to ‘primitive communism’, or even, in extreme cases, of destroying everything, and going back to being foragers again. But no one challenges the basic structure of the story.
There is a fundamental problem with this narrative.
It isn’t true.
https://www.eurozine.com/change-course-human-history/

If you believe capitalism is something we simply have to live with, then we are not standing on the same ground. I cannot accept the idea of resigning myself to a system built on exploitation and inequality, treated as if it were natural or eternal. What passes for stability in capitalism is only the quiet before another round of dispossession.
I reject the kind of unionism that settles for small reforms while leaving the machinery of domination untouched. Progress does not come from p…

"Governments must implement taxes on the super-rich now and prioritise reducing inequality. The world cannot continue on this obscene trajectory.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/21/mi…

Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich
Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney sign letter timed for WEF in Davos saying wealthy are buying political influence

"Guest post: Why cities need more than just air conditioning for extreme heat"
#Climate #ClimateChange #AirConditioning

Guest post: Why cities need more than just air conditioning for extreme heat - Carbon Brief
While air conditioning may be appropriate in certain contexts research has shown that a universal focus on technical solutions risks deepening inequality

Opinion | The Health Care Debate We Really Need - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/opinion/health-care-aca-cost-insurance.html ""...decades’ worth of research shows that, even though employers pay most of workers’ premiums, t…

Opinion | The Health Care Debate We Really Need
The high cost of health care in America is suppressing wages, driving job losses and fueling inequality.

Logarithmic Sobolev inequality in manifolds with nonnegative curvature via the ABP method
Lingen Lu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.17748 https://arxiv.org/pdf/…

"Polling across 36 nations by the Pew Research Center found that 84% see economic inequality as a big problem, and 86% see the political influence of the rich as a major cause of it. In 33 of these nations, a majority believe their country’s economic system needs either “major changes” or “complete reform”. In the UK, a YouGov poll revealed, 75% support a wealth tax on fortunes above £10m, while only 13% oppose it."

Money Talks
The grim truth is that almost the entire political class aligns with the ultra-rich against the rest.

Yet more proof that our collective resources are being spent on the wrong things. #climatechange #inequality

Robert Reich here.
You asked us to stream
"The Last Class" film.
On Dec. 8, you can watch along with us!
Sign up: >> https://ineq.me/

Help us keep up the fight — Inequality Media Civic Action
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most dangerous administration in a lifetime. We're here to push back and empower the resistance.

An investor has calculated a poverty line of $137k/y "for a family of four to afford housing, health care, child care and other necessities", which is four times the current line. While I think location matters here, this national figure is still a good reminder of American wealth inequality.
https://wapo.st/44ymv6f

An investor called $140,000 the new poverty line. Experts disagreed but said he had a point.
Michael Green’s tally of the costs of raising a family in the U.S. today is going viral, even if some economists scoff at his math.

How Legalized Bribery Works in America
https://www.inequalitymediacivicaction.org/debunking-myths/how-legalized-bribery-works-in-america

How Legalized Bribery Works in America — Inequality Media Civic Action
“Corporate political donations are free speech.” Give me a break. Corporate political donations are legalized bribery, plain and simple.

Please keep calling your senators at 202-224-3121.
Tell them: NO funding for ICE until it's disarmed & reformed.
https://im-ca.org/l/FW8Qgr
Robert Reich, IMCA

Donate to Inequality Media Civic Action
Show your support with a contribution.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to
reenact the corporate head tax has been hotly debated,
But whether corporations should pay more taxes should not be contentious. 
Highly concentrated corporate wealth and economic inequality is a scourge on our city and society.
Corporations should pay their fair share to support the public good.
We’ve seen why this is necessary throughout history — over and over again. 
I had the privilege of working with lat…

There Should Be No Debate. Corporations Should Pay More Taxes.
As Chicago's budget standoff continues, the issue of whether corporations should pay more taxes to support the public good should not be contentious.

On November 20th, women stop being paid compared to men.
This is the point in the year when,
on average,
women effectively work for free.
The gender pay gap is now 11.3%,
up from 10.7% last year.
It’s a stark reminder that while progress has been made,
gender pay inequality persists
- and may be higher than we thought.

Robert Reich here.
We're launching an emergency campaign to demand Congress
DEFUND Trump's army of masked deportation thugs.
https://ineqm.co/
IMCA

Help us keep up the fight — Inequality Media Civic Action
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most dangerous administration in a lifetime. We're here to push back and empower the resistance.