How the Ultra-Wealthy Captured American Democracy (with Prof David Gibbs)

About this episode

Kim interviews Prof. David Gibbs about his book discussing the political decisions of the 1970s that contributed to America's class divide.

While the podcast team is taking a Radical Sabbatical, Kim is interviewing authors of the books that have had a big impact on her in the past two years. Wealth concentration in the United States is top of mind these days. While it’s tempting to see this as a recent trend, it is instructive to look at what was happening in American politics decades ago and see how many of these forces were set in motion in the 1970’s.  Kim talks with Prof. David Gibbs about his book, Revolt of the Rich, How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America's Class Divide. Prof. Gibbs reviews decisions that were made during the Nixon and Carter administrations that continue to reverberate in our world today.  For example, during the first oil shock in the early 1970s, President Nixon actively worked to keep oil prices high to support the Shah of Iran and to prop up the dollar.  The result was financialization and deindustrialization. Later in the decade, President Carter was central to the trend of deregulation.  The net effect of these decisions was an erosion of the foundations of the American middle class.  Technical note: we had an issue with one of the microphones on this…

People in this episode

Host: Kim Scott

Guest: David Gibbs

Topics covered

• wealth concentration
• American politics
• class divide
• 1970s politics
• financialization
• deindustrialization

Keywords

• wealth concentration
• class divide
• 1970s
• Nixon
• Carter
• financialization
• deindustrialization
• Revolt of the Rich

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Arizona

Books & works: Revolt of the Rich

Places: United States, Iran

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