Scott Galloway breaks down American inequality

The Future. Prominent podcaster and NYU business professor Scott Galloway’s new book, Adrift: America in 100 Charts, tracks the rise of US inequality and how it economically and culturally impacted the average American. Coming to his conclusions after studying 100 charts about where we are and how we got here, his most important takeaway is that if America refocuses its economic policy on celebrating the dignity of hard work, everyone will become more prosperous.

Return to the middle
Scott Galloway poured over 100 charts detailing America’s inequality for his new book.

Here are some of the key findings, broken down by Insider:

• Working harder no longer means more pay. Up until the 1970s, productivity and wages went up together. But now, productivity has taken off, while wages have mostly stagnated. The gains of that excess productivity have gone to corporate shareholders.
• The rich are getting richer. Property and stocks get more tax breaks than work income. Those who own are typically older and already wealthy, which explains why, over the last 40 years, people over 70 have gotten an average of 72% wealthier while those under 40 have become 22% less wealthy.
• The tax system needs a rethink. Galloway says the best immediate solution is to lower taxes for the middle class and raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations. For example, increasing the tax rate on corps and those that make over a million dollars to 30% would lower everyone else’s tax rate to about 14% with the same returns.

Galloway’s main point is that the middle class needs cultivation, saying its existence “is an accident, and it’s not self-sustaining.” That also means there needs to be an expansion of benefits that make housing, education, and starting a business more affordable.

America is more productive and innovative than at almost any other time in its history — the country just needs to do a better job sharing the success.