Call it the American tradition of Robin Hood in reverse: Christopher Ingraham on states that rob from the poor and give to the rich. Where should poor people live? Studies say that lower-income people do better when they live in affluent neighborhoods, but rich people don’t want them there. Someone finally polled the 1% — and it’s not pretty. Rich people are jerks, explained (and more: Sorry, conservatives, but you share an ideology with a bunch of rich jerks). Do attitudes towards the rich and famous help to legitimize gross disparities in wealth and power? Heather Mendick and Akile Ahmet on celebrity talk and the problem of inequality. “Shit’s gonna hit the fan”: Hamilton Nolan interviews billionaire Nick Hanauer about class war. Billionaires to the barricades: Some of the world’s wealthiest are publicly addressing the gap between the working class and the 1 percent. Why don’t the poor rise up? Thomas Edsall wonders. Helaine Olen on how there’s a reason the poor don’t rise up over inequality — because our culture shames them. George Scialabba reviews The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power by Steve Fraser (and more) and The Demise of Virtue in Virtual America: The Moral Origins of the Great Recession by David Bosworth. The Ford Foundation shifts its grant making to focus entirely on inequality.
