"Chuck's book reveals not only the inner workings of the elaborate scheme to hide more than $20 trillion in wealth, it offers us a blueprint for reversing this obscene inequality."
– Senator Bernie Sanders
For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defense Industry. These “agents of inequality” are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01%.
Collins exposes the inner workings of these “agents of inequality,” showing how they deploy anonymous shell companies, family offices, offshore accounts, opaque trusts, and sham transactions to ensure the world’s richest pay next to no tax. He ends by outlining a robust set of policies that democratic nations can implement to shut down the Wealth Defense Industry for good.
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This shocking exposé of the insidious machinery of inequality is essential reading for anyone wanting the inside story of our age of plutocratic plunder and stashed cash.
"This empowering light into a brighter future is a narrative you won’t want to miss."
– Ralph Nader
The growing wealth inequality continues to dominate headlines. The divide between the haves and have nots in America is increasingly political and tensions are rising. On one side, the wealthy wield power and advantage, keeping the system operating in their favor―all while retreating into enclaves that separate them further and further from the poor and working class. On the other side, those who find it increasingly difficult to keep up or get ahead are desperate and frustrated ―waging a rhetorical war against the rich and letting anger and resentment keep us from seeing new potential solutions.
It is time to think differently, says longtime inequality expert and activist Chuck Collins. Born into the one percent, Collins gave away his inheritance at 26 and spent the next three decades mobilizing against inequality. He uses his perspective from both sides of the divide to deliver a new narrative.
“This book challenges us all, rich and not-so-rich, to a more strenuous and farsighted notion of citizenship.”
– Barbara Ehrenreich,
author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
“Bill Gates and Chuck Collins provide a clear rationale for retaining the estate tax in this helpful and unselfish analysis.”
– Jimmy Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize
More than a thousand individuals of high net worth rose up to protest the repeal of the estate tax; Newsweek tagged them the “billionaire backlash.” The primary visionaries of that group, Bill Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins, argue here that individual wealth is a product not only of hard work and smart choices but of the society that provides the fertile soil for succes.
Weaving personal narratives, history, and plenty of solid economic sense, Gates and Collins make a sound and compelling case for estate tax reform, not repeal.
OTHER TITLES BY CHUCK COLLINS
99 to 1
How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It
(Berrett-Koehler, 2012)
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Brings together facts and figures showing what "the 99% and the 1%" divide means in the real world and the damage it causes, and identifies the social and historical forces that created and perpetuate this divide.
The Wealth Inequality Reader
Coeditor
(Dollars and Sense, 2004, 2008, 2012)
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An essential guide to wealth and poverty in the United States and globally. The fourth edition features the latest statistics on wealth and inequality, analysis of the role of wealth inequality in the current economic crisis, and new strategies for change.
