A Reminder: The Rich Don’t Always Win

Sam Pizzigati (editor of the superb website,  TooMuchOnline, which tracks CEO pay and other gross excesses of the super-rich) has a new book out that rebuts the self-justifying claims used by the rich and right-wing elites: The Rich Don’t Always Win.

From a review by Salvatore Babones on Truthout:

“Pizzigati’s book is a must-read for the contemporary progressive. I read its 370 pages in just two long sittings and would have read it in one if I hadn’t had to sleep. Pizzigati’s focus on the nitty gritty history of the battles and debates that led to the creation of mid-century America is surprisingly gripping – and full of surprises.”

Those surprises suggest how much of our nation’s own populist and progressive history we’ve forgotten, including the history and lessons to learn from movements that fought for economic justice and democracy, including the ideas they rallied around that make today’s efforts look tepid by comparison.

I should say tepid with the possible exception of the Occupy movement and growing calls to break up the banks.

BTW, for a valuable inside perspective on OWS, I highly recommend David Graeber’s new book, The Democracy Project, a gripping description of OWS, efforts to destroy it, and how it has raised the same fundamental principles of democracy raised in the American Revolutionary era — resisted in those days by most of the Founding Fathers, who saw “democracy” as threatening as today’s progressives and liberals see the horizontal principles of  “anarchism.”  That’s Graeber’s take, and his argument is backed up by much evidence. If you want a more critical take on OWS, check out Tom Frank’s essay in Issue # 21 of The Baffler.