wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
Inequality in America
photo

By host Tom Ashbrook:

This summer, we launched a special series on inequality in America. The response from you, our listeners, was tremendous. So, this hour, we’re bringing you highlights from the series.

For four days we looked at inequality in this country — the skyrocketing fortunes of a small percentage of Americans at the top, the flat fortunes of nearly everyone else, and what the resulting gap means for the country.

Americans are not against wealth, and we’re not either. But the income gap between America’s top tier earners and the rest has now grown so large that even Alan Greenspan warned recently it could pose a threat to capitalist democratic society.

Hear from many voices — from the super rich, to the working poor and Nobel Prize-winning economists on inequality in America.

Guests:

Robert Rubin, former Secretary of the Treasury from 1995-1999 under President Clinton and former director and chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup;
Larry Bean, editor in chief of the Robb Report

Gil Lamphere is a private equity fund manager. His net worth is over a hundred million dollars.;
Roger Bailey works as an Operations Director at a television and audio production company. He is 49, makes about $70,000 a year, and has not had a raise in 6 years.;
Danielle Axon is a Certified Nursing Assistant at a nursing home. She earns $14.67 an hour.;
James Heckman, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics and distinguished professor of Economics at the University of Chicago;
Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University, author of “Irrational Exuberance” and “The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century”

Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst and Senior Editor of The Atlantic Monthly;
Anna Burger, Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union

 
 

Comments are closed.

Recent Shows
The Future of Aging
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

A surge of new strategies to “manage” aging — from diets to testosterone. We’ll get the story.

Comments [31]
 
Climate, Congress & Copenhagen
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

The Copenhagen climate conference is one month away. US climate action is going nowhere in Congress. We’ll look at the global implications of America’s domestic climate politics.

Comments [73]
On Point Blog
California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!
No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live [...]

More » | Comments [9]
 
For Love of Science – or Money?

A new study supports the idea that U.S. dominance in engineering and science is threatened — but not for lack of training and education. It has more to do with a lack of social and economic incentives.

More » | Comments [5]
 
Matthew Hoh’s Resignation Letter

Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain, became the first foreign service official to publicly resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan. The move has generated a lot of reaction. You can read Hoh’s resignation letter, posted by The Washington Post, which reported on it here.
It’s a topic for our news roundtable today. What [...]

More » | Comments [4]