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Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality Kindle Edition

by David Cay Johnston (Editor), Adam Smith (Contributor), Elizabeth Warren (Contributor), Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 116 ratings
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Essays on the dangers of the wealth and income gap, collected by the New York Times–bestselling author of It’s Even Worse Than You Think.
 
This collection includes writings by a wide range of voices—including Adam Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Ehrenreich, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Studs Terkel, Paul Krugman, Barack Obama, and David Cay Johnston—illuminating the reality of economic inequality in America, where in spite of the fury that followed the 2008 financial crisis, little has to been done to address the gulf between the one percent and the ninety-nine percent.
 
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Cay Johnston explains that in this most unequal of developed nations, every aspect of inequality remains hotly contested and poorly understood. These writings, from leading scholars, journalists, and activists, offers a multifaceted look at the problem, exploring its devastating—and dangerous—implications in areas as diverse as education, justice, health care, social mobility, and political representation. Provocative and eminently readable, here is an essential resource for anyone who cares about the future of America—and compelling evidence that inequality can be ignored only at the nation’s peril.
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  1. Print length
    354 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    The New Press
  5. Publication date
    April 1, 2014
  6. File size
    1996 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Divided reminds us how inequality is one of those rare problems that truly matters to all of us, no matter what our interests or chosen field."
―Salon

About the Author

David Cay Johnston is an investigative journalist and the winner of a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for uncovering loopholes and inequities in the US tax code. He is the president of Investigative Reporters & Editors and the author of the bestselling trilogy Perfectly Legal, Free Lunch, and The Fine Print. He lives in Rochester, New York.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00EGWEXJC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The New Press (April 1, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 1, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1996 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 116 ratings

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
116 global ratings
A Necessary Read
5 Stars
A Necessary Read
The book is full of useful information that Americans, from academics to economists to politicians to mill workers to mom-n-pop businesses to college students, should read.It tells the story about the vast (but not total) de-industrialization of America in which USA politicians and businesses thought more of profits than patriotism and the health and wealth of their fellow countrymen.Many American businesses have actively sought to improve their bottom lines by offshoring industry at the expense of Americans. U.S. politicians of both major parties are guilty of allowing this catastrophe to occur. The best among us do not serve in Congress or the U.S. Senate.It's time to put Americans first, and I don't mean that in a nationalistic sense; I mean it in a prudent, practical sense so that America can eliminate poverty and create a new middle class that incorporates as many Americans as possible. All countries should ensure their citizens' prosperity. And all countries should work together to ensure the prosperity of all so we can live in a peaceful, prosperous world.
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Top reviews from the United States

Glenn Franco Simmons
5.0 out of 5 stars A Necessary Read
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2022
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The book is full of useful information that Americans, from academics to economists to politicians to mill workers to mom-n-pop businesses to college students, should read.

It tells the story about the vast (but not total) de-industrialization of America in which USA politicians and businesses thought more of profits than patriotism and the health and wealth of their fellow countrymen.

Many American businesses have actively sought to improve their bottom lines by offshoring industry at the expense of Americans. U.S. politicians of both major parties are guilty of allowing this catastrophe to occur. The best among us do not serve in Congress or the U.S. Senate.

It's time to put Americans first, and I don't mean that in a nationalistic sense; I mean it in a prudent, practical sense so that America can eliminate poverty and create a new middle class that incorporates as many Americans as possible. All countries should ensure their citizens' prosperity. And all countries should work together to ensure the prosperity of all so we can live in a peaceful, prosperous world.
Customer image
Glenn Franco Simmons
5.0 out of 5 stars A Necessary Read
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2022
The book is full of useful information that Americans, from academics to economists to politicians to mill workers to mom-n-pop businesses to college students, should read.

It tells the story about the vast (but not total) de-industrialization of America in which USA politicians and businesses thought more of profits than patriotism and the health and wealth of their fellow countrymen.

Many American businesses have actively sought to improve their bottom lines by offshoring industry at the expense of Americans. U.S. politicians of both major parties are guilty of allowing this catastrophe to occur. The best among us do not serve in Congress or the U.S. Senate.

It's time to put Americans first, and I don't mean that in a nationalistic sense; I mean it in a prudent, practical sense so that America can eliminate poverty and create a new middle class that incorporates as many Americans as possible. All countries should ensure their citizens' prosperity. And all countries should work together to ensure the prosperity of all so we can live in a peaceful, prosperous world.
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Book Shark
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Collection of Essays
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2016
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Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality edited by David Cay Johnston

“Divided” is a very solid collection of essays regarding the growing inequality in our society. The essays come from a wide range of influential sources that include the likes of President Obama, economists, lawyers, journalists, educators and politicians. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Cay Johnston put together this fine collection that ranges from the rare ordinary to some real standouts. This stimulating 352-page book includes a total of thirty-nine essays broken out by the following seven main topics: 1. Overview, 2. Income Inequality, 3. Education, 4. Health Care Inequality, 5. Debt and Poverty, 6. Policy, and 7. Family.

Positives:
1. A well-written, accessible book.
2. A good collection of essays that cover many aspects of the growing inequality in our society. Can be read in any order.
3. The book is well structured. The essays are broken out by inequality occurring by theme.
4. The book succeeds in covering the most important point sought out by Johnston, “The single most important point of Divided is: keep in mind who benefits and who does not. It’s our choice. We decide.”
5. President Obama kicks of this solid collection of essays with a great speech he delivered on December 6, 2011, at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas.
6. The following positives will highlight the best essays of the book. Elizabeth Warren’s makes the compelling case for creating a Financial Product Safety Commission (FPSC) on the model of the Consumer Product Safety Commission to protect consumers from abusive banking practices. Her idea became law as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Professor Warren helped set up in 2010–2011.
7. Joseph E. Stiglitz states four reasons inequality is holding our recovery back. “The most immediate is that our middle class is too weak to support the consumer spending that has historically driven our economic growth.”
8. Kim Bobo provides a 5-star essay on how unions protect the interests of workers. “Unions not only raise wages, benefits, and working conditions. They stop wage theft. Unions are one of the most effective wage-theft deterrents around.”
9. Interesting essay by Christopher Jencks that explains why many jobs pay so poorly. “The logic of a market economy is that we should all be paid the smallest amount that will ensure that our work gets done, and that is what low-wage workers generally receive.”
10. Beth Shulman explains the reason behind the ever expanding service-producing sector. “In 1947, service-sector industries accounted for only half of all hours of employment. A half century later, approximately 80 percent of the 134 million nonfarm jobs are in the service-producing industries: retail trade, transportation, telecommunications, utilities, wholesale trade, finance, insurance and real estate, federal, state, and local government, and services.”
11. Two leading advocates for a fairer economy, Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel, explain how great fortunes were assisted by taxpayer’s investments. “Thoughtful Americans are advancing a variety of proposals that would narrow the wealth gap, ranging from expanding worker ownership to creating universal asset-building accounts.”
12. Paul Krugman debunks the myth that education alone is responsible for our inequality. “What we’re seeing isn’t the rise of a fairly broad class of knowledge workers. Instead, we’re seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of small, privileged elite. The proof is right in the data we economists get paid to analyze and understand.”
13. Sean F. Reardon exposes what’s really behind children’s success in school. “Family income is now a better predictor of children’s success in school than race.”
14. Mary E. O’Brien provides an analysis of unequal quality of care. “Quality of health care has little meaning if millions are unable to access care in the first place.” “What we need is a system that scrupulously guards our medical privacy and confidentiality while affording health care professionals immediate access to a patient’s medical history.”
15. Authors Olveen Carrasquillo and Jaime Torres show how racism pervades the provision of health care in America with severe consequences. “Disparities in health are due to a variety of factors—including environment, housing, poverty, education, and racism—that go far beyond just having insurance.”
16. Leo W. Gerard explains the benefits of universal health care. “A national single-payer system would relieve corporations of the burden of health-insurance administration, stabilize costs, and give corporations, the global level playing field they want.”
17. My favorite essay goes to Inequality Kills by Stephen Bezruchka. “The forty-seven infant deaths occur every day because of the way society in the United States is structured, resulting in our health status being that of a middle-income country, not a rich country.”
18. Robert Kutter explains why inequality is as much a political problem as an economic one. “A prosperous economy demands investment in children, in health, in education, in job training, in public systems, in the commons generally.”
19. Two scholars Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson, show how Social Security does more to reduce income inequality and prevent poverty among the old in the United States than any other program, public or private, while providing crucial protection for orphans and the disabled. “The reality is that Social Security is not a government handout. It is a benefit that is earned and paid for through hard work.”
20. Ernest Drucker closes out the best of the rest with his excellent essay titled, A Different Kind of Epidemic. “A subtle but significant factor in inequality is America’s use of long prison sentences for nonviolent crimes, which has hit black Americans especially hard. A prominent epidemiologist explains this as a new kind of public health problem.”

Negatives:
1. Some essays did not live up to the quality established overall. Adam Smith’s (yes that Adam Smith) essay or excerpt on necessaries was underwhelming.
2. Barbara Ehrenreich’s satirical essay on the other end of the pay scale falls flat.
3. Herrera was misspelled throughout one of the best essays of the book, Wage Theft by Kim Bobo.
4. Unless you look closely you would think that this book was written by David Cay Johnston. The book cover does not make clear it’s a book of essays, the term edited implies that but I would venture to say many will miss that.
5. Lack of supplementary materials. I would have added a chapter of interesting tidbits that highlight the main theme of the book. Perhaps a table that showcases what CEOs of top companies make versus the average employee.

In summary, this was an interesting and accessible book of essays covering the hot topic of income inequality. These are generally high-quality essays that cover a wide-range of topics within inequality. A worthwhile read, I recommend it!

Further recommendations: “Perfectly Legal”, “The Fine Print” and “Free Lunch” by the same author, “Divide” by Matt Taibbi, “Runaway Inequality” and “Looting America” by Les Leopold, “Saving Capitalism” and “Beyond Outrage” by Robert B. Reich, “Protecting Capitalism Case by Case” by Eliot Spitzer, “The Great Divide” and “The Price of Inequality” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Winner-Take-All Politics” by Jacob S. Hacker “Republic, Lost” by Lawrence Lessig, “The New Elite” by Dr. Jim Taylor, “ECONned” by Yves Smith, “The Great Divergence” by Timothy Noah, and “Bailout” by Neil Barofsky.
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tomp55555
5.0 out of 5 stars Having read Johnston's other books, I just had to ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2015
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Having read Johnston's other books, I just had to look at this one too. Far too many of us Americans are silently complicit to this ever-growing and highly inequitable distribution of income and assets. With contributions from many prominent leaders from the ranks of politics, academia and policy makers, inequality, as it affects Education, Upward Mobility, and other key criteria are examined and expounded upon here. Needless to say, income inequality has become a key issue these days but very few amongst our leaders are willing to take the necessary steps to remediate this national and, by extension, global affliction. Inequality, as has been reiterated in this text and many others, is such a pervasive and crippling condition that it impacts ALL-from those below the poverty line to the privileged few in the .1 or .001% income and wealth classes. Clearly, though, some, the majority, far more than others.
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Kevin Blackwood
5.0 out of 5 stars David Cay is the best source of information for what's really going on out there!
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2014
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I have read all of DCJ's books, thoroughly. More than once because every thing he writes is dead-on accurate. And important. I love his writing style, gets right down to the white-meat without a lot of blah, blah, blah. He makes salient points from the get go and then backs them up with a boat load of facts and examples.

Buy his books, they're great!

And you can take that all the way to the bank....
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Jim
5.0 out of 5 stars "Divided" by David Cay Johnson
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2015
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Great book! Good read, highly recommend.
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J. Volz
3.0 out of 5 stars it feels like a text or a newspaper devoted to one subject
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2015
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Important information regarding our economy and the increasing wealth concentrated to the top 1%. However, the book is a compilation of essays, speeches, articles and interviews with various government representatives and business people (President Obama, Elizabeth Warren, John Adams) and not a narrative by David Cay Johnston. As such, it feels like a text or a newspaper devoted to one subject, plowing through it was a bit of a chore due to repetition and, for me, what I would call "choppiness." But the message and information are invaluable.
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JL Populist
4.0 out of 5 stars Inequality and all the Perspectives.
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2015
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As another reviewer pointed out,this isn't a book written entirely by David Cay Johnston, he wrote a few chapters but he edited most of the material from other authors.
His choice of authors was very good! Among those that I appreciated most were Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Mary O'Brien, Studs Terkel, and Leo W. Gerard.
This book covers multiple facets of inequality, I doubt that he missed any angles.
Some of the subjects I liked the best were corporate welfare, the estate tax, universal health care, unequal quality of care, and "Inequality is Holding Back the Recovery."
This book is worthy of a read. I confess that I do his prefer his written works a bit better, but this is a good book on the subject of Inequality and what ails our economy.
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Martin Lobel
5.0 out of 5 stars perils of inequality
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2015
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A very perceptive compendium of the perils we face if we don't do something soon about our income inequality
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