Preface
1. Background and history
A widening gap
Measuring income inequality
Wealth inequality
Long-term trends
Rowboats, yachts, and rising tides
Race, ethnicity, and economic inequality
Income inequality and health
Income inequality and education
A shrinking middle class ?
From rich to poor and poor to rich : mobility
Rich and poor : the political dimension
2. Problems, controversies, and solutions
The wage structure and human capital
Labor skills, labor demand, and technological change
International competition
Immigration
Unions and the wage distribution
The Minimum Wage and inequality
Winner take all?
family structure and income distribution
Political perspectives on income inequality
Education as an income equalizer
The effectiveness of early interventions
U.S. schools and inequality
Ways to improve low-SES student performance
College : ticket to the middle class
Working on the labor market
The living wage as a boost to low wages
Stronger unions as a means to lift low wages
Earned Income Tax Credit
Limits on CEO pay
Immigrant labor supplies
Taxes and transfer payments
Wealth and estate taxes
Asset-building policies
Summary


3. Worldwide perspective
A world of contrasts
National rates of income inequality
Income inequality in Latin America and Africa
Poverty in the rich countries
National trends in income inequality
Income by country : divergence or convergence?
A new concept of global inequality
Less inequality, less poverty?
Economic mobility : the United States in global perspective
Top U.S. incomes in worldwide perspective
CEO pay and income inequality
Wealth taxes : a (so far) non-American response to wealth inequality
A caution on wealth taxes
4. Chronology
5. Biographical sketches
Horatio Alger Jr.
Anne L. Alstott
Warren E. Buffett
John Bates Clark
Chuck Collins
Marian Wright Edelman
John Edwards
Barbara Ehrenreich
Victor R. Fuchs
William H. Gates III
Corrado Gini
Hetty Green
Delores Huerta
Jonathan Kozol
Simon Kuznets
Bhashkar Mazumder
Sara S. McLanahan
Mollie Orshansky
John D. Rockefeller
Paul G. Schervish
Thomas M. Shapiro
Michael Sherraden
Ronald J. Sider
Timothy M. Smeeding
Samuel Walton
Richard Wilkinson
Edward N. Wolff


6. Data and documents
Inequality and the American public : the Maxwell School Survey
Perceptions of inequality trends
Concerns about inequality
California Kids Investment and Development Savings (KIDS) accounts
Ben Bernanke on U.S. income inequality
pay without performance : the great CEO guarantee
Are CEOs overpaid?
The Estate Tax 'recycles' opportunity
Being profitable is giving back
Andrew Carnegie on what to do with a fortune
Giving back, big time : the Carnegie-Buffett connection
Being poor
7. Directory of organizations
8. Selected print and nonprint resources
Print resources
Articles
Books
Nonprint resources
Web sites
Video
Contact information for video distributors and vendors
Glossary
Index
About the author.