inequality - Dissent Magazine

Neoliberalism’s World Order

Adam Tooze ▪ Summer 2018

Since its inception, neoliberalism has sought not to demolish the state, but to create an international order strong enough to override democracy in the service of private property.

Mexico’s Bid for Change

Carlos Bravo Regidor and Patrick Iber ▪ July 5, 2018

Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s landslide victory in Mexico’s presidential election reflects widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo—and a broad-based mandate to transform the country.

For all his differences with his predecessor, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has inherited the same fundamental dilemmas that faced Michael Bloomberg—and much of the billionaire’s approach to resolving them.

The Plutocracy Comes to Campus

Jim Sleeper ▪ May 15, 2018

When undergrads challenged a rich donor close to Donald Trump, his biggest defenders were their own university’s leaders.

The Class Politics of Teeth

Mary Otto ▪ Spring 2018

Inequalities in oral health and dental access reflect our deepest social and economic divides.

A Dismal Report Card on Global Inequality

Colin Gordon ▪ April 20, 2018

A new report, based on the work of Thomas Piketty and his colleagues, offers a stark picture of the increasing concentration of wealth and income at a global scale.

All that Dissipates Must Descend

Frank Guan ▪ Winter 2018

In her short stories, Ottessa Moshfegh chronicles downward mobility on the part of the privileged—and in so doing exposes their unfitness to rule, if not to exist.

Working the Deuce

Melissa Gira Grant ▪ Winter 2018

The Deuce, at its best, offers a 360-degree view of New York’s sex economy—but as the show progresses, Times Square’s street characters become a sideshow.

Fully Automated Luxury Socialism: The Case for a New Public Sector

Andrew Elrod ▪ Winter 2018

With ever more job-killing robots on the horizon, it’s time to demand a new public sphere: one that guarantees not just jobs but leisure too.

American Apartheid

Jacqueline Jones ▪ Fall 2017

In The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein unveils how the federal government deliberately promoted housing segregation, deepening racial inequality and violating the Constitutional rights of millions of Americans.

Gilt Trip

Allison Powers Useche ▪ Fall 2017

How the “Boston Brahmins” of the late nineteenth century laid the foundations for modern American capitalism.

Them That Has, Gets

Colin Gordon ▪ November 8, 2017

There is no starker measure of inequality in the United States than net wealth—and over the last four years, the divide has only grown.

Breaking with Capitalist Orthodoxy

Michael Jacobs and Mariana Mazzucato ▪ Spring 2017

Western capitalism has not been functioning well in recent years. But there is nothing inevitable about its collapse. A more innovative, sustainable, and inclusive economic system is necessary.

How Tax Policy Created the 1%

Julia Ott ▪ April 18, 2017

From the 1920s to today, American tax policy has evolved to reflect one principle—the investor comes first—with disastrous implications for the rest of us.