BRATTLEBORO-Chuck Collins of Guilford has given us another text worthy of attention from those who care about climate, equity, democracy, and prosperity.
Burned by Billionaires - the eighth book by or co-authored by Collins - is, according to promotional materials, "a scathing exposé of the hidden impact of America's ultra wealthy on our social, economic, political, and ecological landscape - as well as a path toward a more equitable future."
As described in a 2016 profile in The Commons, Collins "brings a unique perspective to the argument. He was once a member in good standing of the wealthiest 1% of Americans before giving away his inheritance at age 26 and spending the next three decades working to reduce economic inequality."
Collins chronicles how the actions of the top 0.01% "have severe consequences for the rest of us, especially those of marginalized identities."
"Recently, it has become increasingly evident that extreme concentrations of wealth and power have profound impacts on our politics, but extreme inequality's influence on our daily lives - and our futures - has been vastly overlooked."
Illustrated with easy-to-follow graphs and charts - and well-chosen cartoons - Collins's latest unpacks the "economic, social, and ecological destruction" seen today in the increased tax burden on the middle class; cuts in funding for public schools, roads, health, and other essentials; the diminishing supply of affordable housing; raging climate change and its impact on every aspect of our lives, including the food we eat; the state of the news and the spread of misinformation. It's seen, too, in the undermining of "the democratic principle that our votes matter equally."
Dodging a tone of helplessness, the book "offers a pointed prescription for taking power back from the billionaire class and achieving the shared prosperity that comes from a healthy and equal society."
A senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., Collins is also editor of inequality.org. He writes a column, "Oligarch Watch," for The Nation.
The Commons spoke recently with Collins about his new book.
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Annie Landenberger: What was the catalyst for Burned by Billionaires?
Chuck Collins: One thing is, as editor of inequality.org, I get a lot of mail - some not so friendly - and I've had a lot of people say there's nothing that a billionaire is doing that's harming my life.
This book basically says pretty much everything you care about is being disrupted and undermined by this growing concentration of wealth. An economy that's rigged and oriented toward funneling wealth to the top is not a good society.
An example: Somebody is constantly trying to scam you out of your money through online, phone, and text scams. Something that can bug you every day is actually what happens when the billionaires block consumer protection laws.
Actually, Trumpism is really a symptom. Democratic societies are in trouble when there's too much inequality. At some point, the bottom 90% is going to wake up and go, "Whoa, whoa. We're going to vote the billionaire lapdogs out."
And that's not just now - that's historically. When any kind of self-governing society gets too big of an imbalance of wealth there's either a revolution or there's authoritarianism.
A.L.: What's in your crystal ball?
C.C.: Well, the dark scenario is the gloomy: We keep going down this path toward growing authoritarianism.
As I write in the book, it's [like] Elysium [a 2013 dystopian science fiction film]. In it, billionaires go live on a satellite that looks like Malibu, and the rest of humanity is on this degraded, overpopulated, polluted Earth. You play it out, that's what this looks like. Then add AI and robots and the whole business - that's Elysium. It is the science fiction depiction of where we don't want to go.
And the better scenario is - yeah, we wake up.
I think we are in the process, as a society, of waking up to the deep harms of these extreme inequalities and there's still enough room to move - in terms of democracy - to push back and reform and rewire the economy so that it's not just funneling wealth to the top.
I think it can go either way, and my view of this book is as a way to help accelerate the waking up process.
A.L.: The book is presented well for a quick read. It's succinct, visually appealing, full of bulleted lists, and pithy summaries. How can you get it into the hands of the right audiences?
C.C.: Yeah, it's very intentionally a popular book: It has cartoons, it has graphics, and it tries to say "Here are the ways [the billionaire cohort] touches your life in depth - the environment, your health, your vote, your voice, your taxes.
I'll be sitting in my pajamas talking on the radio. I'm booked starting Oct. 8 on 50 or 60 talk shows, [including in] Wisconsin and Minnesota. I am trying to hone a way to talk about this to a wider popular AM radio audience. I'm going to be booked on WDEV, the Voice of the North Country [in Waterbury, Vermont], not once but twice.
My goal is to break through the fog a little in terms of reaching a broader popular audience.
The other thing is, among people who understand the harms, it's time to give folks a pep talk: "We can fix this. Here are some campaigns and pathways. And, by the way, there are already these cracks that are open."
The division between different factions of billionaires means not everything is locked up.
A.L.: So even though the proverbial choir may be aware of the situation, the book gives the choir a way to take action. A huge audience for this, I think, is people who see the environmental impact of the billionaires' burn.
C.C.: The fossil fuel billionaires are the super emitters - polluters with their jets, yachts. They are using their wealth and power to run out the clock. Basically, this whole move toward shutting down wind projects and boosting coal plants is really the fossil fuel oligarchs exercising power, capturing government.
Annie, you get up in the morning and you're like, should I ride my bike? Not drive? Then a billionaire is flying their jet across town for lunch. That unequal sacrifice makes everyone else feel like a bunch of chumps. If we're going to really pull it together to respond to this moment, the wealthy are going to have to make the biggest changes.
I want to bring that inequality lens to the climate conversation: Billionaires are driving the climate crisis, driving us to the edge of the cliff. It's not about your eating a hamburger. It's about the billionaires blocking change.
A.L.: And then with scientists being eliminated from the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration being cut, and emissions restrictions eliminated, who's saying, "Excuse me, this is not a good idea"? I feel Orwellian right now.
C.C.: Totally, totally. I write about this a little: Ten years from now, there may be a tribunal that looks [back at who was] responsible for running out the clock. We know that we're supposed to keep global temperature [increases] below 1.5 degrees centigrade, but we probably blew past that last year.
Why is that? It's because, the fossil fuel billionaires got together and said, "We need to get this Trump guy elected," and they ponied up huge amounts of resources.
And now [it's] their dream agenda, and it's a very short-term take-the-money-and-run agenda. Like the whole idea that we're going to restore coal plants.
And they're going to shut down Revolution Wind in New Bedford, [Massachusetts], and all these New England solar and wind projects at the same time. That's an oligarchic intervention in energy policy.
A.L.: In Chapter 12 - I call it the "to-do" chapter - you suggest potent actions, but each needs a leader. How does leadership happen to implement this proactive agenda?
C.C.: I think what's going to happen in the short term is a whole group of leaders will emerge. Some will run for office on an "I want to make the economy work for everybody, not just the billionaires" platform.
I talk about what I call these game-changing campaigns. You link reducing the harm to the thing you want. So you tax the wealthy and invest in climate transition - in green infrastructure.
You tax private jet fuel, and you build high speed rail. You tax inheritances and you fund education and opportunities for non-rich people.
If you just say, "Well, we're going to raise the floor, but not address the concentration of wealth and power," you're not going to win.
People who care about health care are going to say we need to ban private-equity, billionaire-backed firms from buying hospitals.
We need to tax the harm to fund the good and make that connection. I think there are [populist] leaders and there are going to be [others emerging]: the Oyster Man [Graham Platner] running for Senate in Maine, or Dan Osborn running again in Nebraska.
These are people who have a fairly focused populist message: help working people, help deal with the affordability crisis. You care about the cost of groceries? Tax the hell out of monopoly ownership of all these food sectors.
So the leaders are there, and they will have a platform when they start to make those connections, I think.
A.L.: What keeps ringing in my head is "We don't want socialism." What do you say to people who say, "This sounds like socialism to me"?
C.C.: First of all, anything that reverses these concentrations of wealth and power will be called "socialist." But getting the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes is a popular idea among Republicans, Democrats, independents-
A.L.: And even some wealthy, yes, right?
C.C.: Even some wealthy. Yeah, even the patriotic millionaires and more and more of the wealth-holding classes are saying the wealthy should pay their fair share.
You know, my favorite quote from our senior senator in Vermont [Bernie Sanders] is that under the "socialist" presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, the richest 1% paid much higher taxes and we invested in debt-free education, infrastructure, affordable housing, home ownership for 30 years after World War II, peaking under the "socialist" presidency of Dwight.
Obviously Eisenhower was not a socialist, but in today's world, billionaires would call him one. They're going to call anything socialist that threatens their power and prerogative.
I think that you're going to start to see just plain old pro-working-class populists, pro-middle-class, pro-common-sense folks [speaking up].
A.L.: I hope so. You're going to give Bernie the book?
C.C.: Oh, yeah. His staff has read it. The senator has his own [copy]. My hope is that Burned by Billionaires really is a boost to the Fighting Oligarchy movement that the Senator is leading.
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Burned by Billionaires will be released on Wednesday, Oct. 8. The book's Brattleboro launch takes place Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. at 118 Elliot Street, when Collins will read excerpts and field questions. Copies will be available for purchase.
The book is also available through its publisher, The New Press (thenewpress.org). For more information, visit chuckcollinswrites.com.
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Editor's note: Stories presented as interviews in this format are edited for clarity, readability, and space. Words not spoken by interview subjects appear in brackets, as do editorial clarifications.
Annie Landenberger is an arts writer and columnist for The Commons. She also is one half of the musical duo Bard Owl, with partner T. Breeze Verdant.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.