Down the Up Escalator (30 page)

None of the economists I’ve mentioned agree entirely with each other nor are they responsible for my conclusions. But this unusual
collection of credentialed economists who happen to speak and write clearly gave me confidence in my own observations.

I feel a twinge of guilt whenever I use the figures 99 percent or 1 percent, because so many other people did the collective work of making statistics about inequality mean something. Thanks to the folks I spent time with at Liberty Square and to others who occupied Wall Street and elsewhere.

Despite the vicissitudes of the publishing industry, great books will always emerge somehow. But books like mine would not be written without passionate, literate, traditional editors like Gerald Howard and old-fashioned, on-your-side agents like Joy Harris. Thank you both for keeping on.

Friends who know my darling husband, Frank Leonardo, wonder why I don’t thank him for his support and inspiration the way other authors thank less deserving spouses. Frank loves me no matter what I do or don’t accomplish in the world, and he shows it. This unconditional love inspires me to sit comfortably on the couch for hours. Without it I might write more, I suppose. That’s O.K., though. I love him back the same way.

Salutations, in order of age, to Miriam Zissel, Chaya Mushka, Stefan, Menucha Rachel, August, Alice, and Rifka.

BARBARA GARSON is the author of three books:
All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work, The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers Are Transforming the Office of the Future
, and, most recently,
Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks Her Cash Through the Global Economy
. She has also written several plays, including
Mac Bird!
and the OBIE award–winning The
Dinosaur Door
, and her work has appeared in
Harper’s, The New York Times, Newsweek
, and
The Nation
.