Chuck Collins
Chuck Collins | |
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| Born | October 19, 1959 |
| Alma mater | Hampshire College Southern New Hampshire University |
Chuck Collins (born October 19, 1959) is an author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is also co-founder of Wealth for Common Good. He is an expert on U.S. economic inequality and has pioneered efforts to bring together investors and business leaders to speak out publicly against corporate practices and economic policies that increase economic inequality.
Early life
Collins was born in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in suburban Detroit where he attended Cranbrook School. At an early age, he witnessed the 1967 Detroit riots and became concerned about inequality and was involved in social change, including Earth Day 1970. He raised money for guide dogs and informed his neighborhood about the environment at a young age. [1] He was raised in a Unitarian Universalist congregation. When he was 26 years old, he gave away an educational trust fund and an inheritance worth almost $500,000. [2]
Education
He is a graduate of Hampshire College (B.A., 1984), and holds a master's degree (1987) from the School of Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University.
Career
Between 1983 and 1991, Collins worked at the Institute for Community Economics, based in Greenfield, Massachusetts, providing technical to community land trusts and mobile home resident cooperatives. Between 1991 and 1995, he was director of the HOME Coalition in Massachusetts and a field organizer for the Tax Equity Alliance of Massachusetts (now the Mass Budget and Policy Center). In 1995, he co-founded, with Felice Yeskel and S.M. Miller, United for a Fair Economy in Boston, Massachusetts, a national organization devoted to education about growing income and wealth inequality. In 2005, he became a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits the web site, www.inequality.org, and directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. In 2008, he cofounded Wealth for the Common Good, which subsequently merged in 2015 with the Patriotic Millionaires.
At the Institute for Policy Studies, Collins research has looked at income and wealth inequality and the racial wealth divide. He has co-authored a number of studies including “Billionaire Bonanza” exploring the share of wealth flowing to the top 1 percent and Forbes 400 and “Ever Growing Gap” examining the future of the racial wealth divide.
Works
Collins has written a number of books about inequality, tax policy and social change philanthropy. In 2000, he co-authored the book, Robin Hood Was Right: A Guide to Giving Your Money for Social Change (W.W. Norton). In 2000 (and revised in 2005), he co-authored, with Felice Yeskel, Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity (The New Press). Collins is coauthor, with William H. Gates, Sr., of the 2003 book, Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, which argues that the estate tax is both fair and necessary. In 2013, he authored 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It (ISBN 978-1609945923). His most recent book is Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good (Chelsea Green, 2016)
Personal life
Collins is the great-grandson of German-born meatpacker Oscar Mayer and the grandson of the U.S. pianist and composer Edward Joseph Collins. Collins lives in Jamaica Plain, Boston with his partner and their three children.
References
- ^ French, Kimberly. "From Riches to Responsibility Defending the Estate Tax". UU World.
- ^ Collins, Chuck. Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good. Chelsea Green, 2016. ISBN 978-1-60358-683-2.
External links
- Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good Chelsea Green, 2016. ISBN-10: 1603586830
- Book - 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It
- Institute on Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good site
- Patriotic Millionaries
- Class Action
- Inequality.org This website is a portal to statistics, news, and opinions on economic inequality in the U.S.
- United for a Fair Economy site
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