Income Inequality
From WikiDemocracy
‘Socialism for the rich’: the evils of bad economics
In both the US and the UK, from 1980 to 2016, the share of total income going to the top 1% has more than doubled. After allowing for inflation, the earnings of the bottom 90% in the US and UK have barely risen at all over the past 25 years. More generally, 50 years ago, a US CEO earned on average about 20 times as much as the typical worker. Today, the CEO earns 354 times as much. We adopt narratives to justify inequality because society is highly unequal, not the other way round. So inequality may be self-perpetuating in a surprising way. Rather than resist and revolt, we just cope with it. Less Communist Manifesto, more self-help manual.
The income tax cuts for the rich of the past 40 years were originally justified by economic arguments: Laffer’s rhetoric was seized upon by politicians. But to economists, his ideas were both familiar and trivial. Modern economics provides neither theory nor evidence proving the merit of these tax cuts. Both are ambiguous. Although politicians can ignore this truth for a while, it suggests that widespread opposition to higher taxes on the rich is ultimately based on reasons beyond economics.
Resources
Income Inequality in the US.org
CBO Confirms With Trump-GOP 'Big, Ugly Law,' Working Families Lose 'And Billionaires Win'
by Jessica Corbett 11/8/25 Common Dreams
"This isn't shared sacrifice—it's class warfare," said one policy expert.
Democracy Cannot Thrive Without Thriving Labor Unions
by Adam Dean Jamie McCallum 27/1/24 Common Dreams
On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the share of workers represented by unions was 11.2% in 2023, down slightly from 11.3% in 2022. This news of stagnation is especially sobering for the American labor movement because the past year was full of major victories and growing momentum. The UAW’s ‘stand up’ strike led to record contracts for autoworkers, graduate students around the country won union elections, and public support for labor unions reached near-record highs—especially among young Americans.
Rock, Economics and Rebuilding the Middle Class
by Simone Pathe 12/7/13 PBS NEWS
Alan Krueger, outgoing chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, spoke at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, last month about inequality in America and ways that the president’s economic policies are supposedly strengthening the middle class.
=====Studies Reveal Consensus: Trade Flows during “Free Trade” Era Have Exacerbated U.S. Income Inequality===== by PUBLICCITIZEN
U.S. income inequality has jumped to levels not seen since the pre-depression 1920s, as middleclass wages have stagnated while the incomes of the rich have surged.
In 1979, the median weekly wage for U.S. workers in today’s dollars was about $749. In 2014, it had increased just four dollars to $753 per week.
Wage Inequality Continued to Increase in 2020
by Lawrence Mishel,Jori Kandra 13/12/21 Common Dreams
Newly available wage data from the Social Security Administration allow us to analyze wage trends for the top 1.0% and other very high earners as well as for the bottom 90% during 2020. The upward distribution of wages from the bottom 90% to the top 1.0% that was evident over the period from 1979 to 2019 was especially strong in the 2020 pandemic year, yielding historically high wage levels and shares of all wages for the top 1.0% and 0.1%. Correspondingly, the share of wages earned by the bottom 95% fell in 2020.
For Equal Pay Day, Let’s Finally Close the Gender Pay Gap
by Elise Gould 12/3/24 Common Dreams
March 12 is Equal Pay Day, a reminder that there is still a significant pay gap between men and women in our country. The date represents how far into 2024 women would have to work on top of the hours they worked in 2023 simply to match what men were paid in 2023. Women were paid 21.8% less on average than men in 2023, after controlling for race and ethnicity, education, age, and geographic division.
Column: When corporations were a source of greater equality
by Gerald Davis 16/9/16 PBS NEWS
The postwar era of corporate dominance corresponded to a period of remarkable economic growth, social mobility and relative income equality in the United States. GDP, productivity and household income grew at a remarkable rate during this period, which is now widely regarded as a golden era for the American economy. It was not just in the U.S.: the period from 1945 to 1975 is called the “glorious thirty” (“les trente glorieuses”) in France, and both Western Europe and East Asia saw similar periods of growing prosperity. But in the U.S. this era is distinctively associated with the corporate economy.
85 Years Later, Make the Minimum Wage Truly Equitable
by Jasmine Payne- Patterson 1/9/23 Common Dreams
The concept behind the FLSA began in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression, a time when about 25% of workers were unemployed, people lost their life savings due to bank failures, and many struggled to secure housing and food. In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded with the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and establishing the National Recovery Administration (NRA).
More Job Outsourcing, More Income Inequality
Negotiated in secret with hundreds of industry advisors, corporate-driven trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) include protections for corporations to outsource American jobs, pushing down wages for everyone in the U.S. After the 2000 U.S. trade deal with China, millions of middle-class jobs were outsourced. The result is lower wages for all of us, not just manufacturing workers. Contrary to the theory of free trade, broad losses in income caused by our trade policies outweigh the gains consumers get from cheaper imported products.
Breaking with Capitalist Orthodoxy
The capitalist economies of the developed world have, over the last decade, proven to be profoundly dysfunctional. Not only did the 2008 financial crash lead to the deepest and longest recession in modern history, but nearly a decade later, few advanced economies have returned to anything resembling stability. Prospects for growth remain uncertain. Even during the pre-crash period when economic growth was strong, living standards for the majority of workers in developed countries barely rose. Inequality between the richest and the rest of society has now grown to levels not seen since the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, continued environmental pressures, especially climate change, threaten global prosperity.
Wage gap between white and black Americans is worse today than in 1979
by Molly Redden 20/9/16 The Guardian
Black Americans today earn even less relative to their white counterparts than they did in 1979, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Our Inequality: An Introduction
by Colin Gordon 20/9/16 The Guardian
The dimensions of that inequality are both familiar and depressing. A smaller share of national income is flowing to wages and earnings, and—more important—inequality within that labor share is widening. As a result, wage growth has flatlined for a generation [click here for interactive graphic]. Middle-income workers make no more now than they did in the late 1970s; those in the lower wage cohort have lost ground over that span.
=====Latinos’ Retirement Insecurity in the United States===== by UNIDOS US
UnidosUS, previously known as NCLR
(National Council of La Raza), is the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. Through its unique combination of expert research, advocacy, programs, and an Affiliate Network of nearly 300 community-based organizations across the United States and Puerto Rico, UnidosUS simultaneously challenges the social, economic, and political barriers that affect Latinos at the national and local levels.
Chile protests for greater economic equality
Chile's President Sebastian Pinera announced the end of the state of emergency on Sunday after protests broke out more than a week ago. The uprising was sparked by a subway fare increase in the capital city of Santiago but had been brewing for a long time. Millions of demonstrators then gathered in Santiago and throughout the country calling for greater economic equality.
How Ending Legacy Admissions Can Help Achieve Greater Education Equity
by Director, National Campaigns, Systemic Equality 12/4/22 ACLU
Higher education should be accessible to everyone — regardless of background or socioeconomic status — but unfortunately, that’s not the reality for all students. For many first generation, low-income, Black, Latinx, and other students of color, the road to college is filled with roadblocks that are deeply rooted in our country’s history of systemic inequity. This path for many of these students begins with poorly funded urban schools, high rates of poverty, inadequate test preparation, unaffordable tuition, and a general lack of guidance available to students applying for financial aid — just to name a few. But the barriers to admission don’t end there.
How Tax Policy Created the 1%
Last Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters across the country joined the Tax March, although most realized Trump won’t divulge anything about his taxes unless Congress or the courts take action. So we may never know the truth about Trump’s income and charitable contributions, about the conflicts of interest and the “emoluments” from foreign powers.
The Income Gap Began To Narrow Under Obama
by Ben Casselman 26/9/16 FiveThirtyEight
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump don’t agree on much. But there’s one theme that’s central to both of their campaigns: The U.S. economy too often benefits the powerful few over the struggling many. Trump has pledged to be the “voice” of the masses fighting against a “rigged” system. Clinton, though less fiery in her rhetoric than either Trump or Bernie Sanders, her former Democratic rival, has pledged to make the “super-rich” start paying “their fair share.”
Fed Chair Powell says policies are needed to address slow income growth
by Martin Crutsinger 9/5/19 PBS NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday the United States needs to find ways to address a decades-long slowdown in income growth and upward economic mobility.
Column: The only conquerors of inequality are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
by Walter Scheidel 16/6/17 PBS NEWS
The thesis of my book is that if you look at the very long run of history over hundreds of thousands of years, wherever there is documentation, you see that pretty high levels of income and wealth inequality used to be a default condition. For long periods of time, inequality tends to either go up or be stable at pretty high levels. But every single time we observe a major reduction in economic inequality, it is linked to some massive, violent shock — an upending of the established order. And that’s true across history.
This Economic Policy Could Break the Poverty Cycle
Intergenerational wealth, or the passing on of wealth within generations of a family, gives a notable advantage to those who have it, and often leaves those who don’t economically burdened. Income inequality in the U.S. continues to persist and the median income of white people largely outsizes that of people of color. This disparity has plagued generations, greatly reducing the ability of people of color to start businesses, pursue higher education, and buy homes.
‘We deserve more’: US workers’ share of the pie dwindles
by Michael Sainato 6/5/24 The Guardian
When Jesse Motte began working at a Starbucks inside a Target store in Columbia, South Carolina, more than two years ago, $15 an hour sounded great. He was excited to start because it was the most he had ever made after working for years in the service industry.
To Address Inequalities, the US Needs a Federal Mandate for Paid Sick Leave
by Elise Gould, Hilary Wething 20/9/24 Common Dreams
While these gains are welcome news for millions of working families, access to paid sick leave remains vastly unequal. As shown in the graph below, higher-wage workers have greater access to paid sick days than lower-wage workers. Among the 25% of private-sector workers with the highest wages, 94% have access to paid sick days.
Three Numbers That Help Explain What Happened to Inequality During the Pandemic
by James O'Donnell 14/3/23 PBS
The wealth held by the bottom 50% of Americans is now more than 2.2 times higher than it was at the start of the pandemic, according to data published by the Federal Reserve. But, economists caution there’s more to unpack in that number before interpreting it as reversing years of a persistent wealth gap.
Americans are more concerned about wealth-based achievement gaps than race
by Kenya Downs 12/8/16 PBS NEWS
The study, which surveyed respondents representative of national demographics of race, income and political affiliation, found that 64 percent of Americans are strongly in favor of closing the the test-score achievement gap between poor and wealthy students. Yet only 36 percent and 31 percent expressed the same motivation toward the black-white and Hispanic-white achievement gaps, respectively.
The U.S. has Made Great Progress at Increasing Economic Inequality
by Rick Baum 9/6/23 COUNTERPUNCH
Advancing economic inequality has been a bipartisan undertaking. The actions of both the Democrats and Republicans in power have increased economic inequality as their leaders, together, champion the interests of the rich and powerful at the expense of the middle and working classes. Additionally, despite the growth in the diversity of the ruling class, economic inequality has continued to widen.
Top US bosses earn 278 times more than their employees
by Dominic Rushe 14/8/19 The Guardian
The increase far outstripped the typical worker’s salary growth, at 11.9%, adjusted for inflation, and also the returns from the stock market, which are often used to justify high executive pay. The S&P 500 index of top US companies grew 706.7% over that period.
Subsidizing Inequality: New York City’s Crooked Development Agenda
Too much of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign against inequality has been spent trying to change New York State law. His most ballyhooed initiatives, such as raising New York City’s income tax on the wealthy and hiking up the minimum wage for the city’s working poor, require a vote by a divided state legislature and a signature from a governor whose recent tepid support for progressive causes appears to hinge on political calculations.
Prosperity Undermined
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that serves as the people's voice in the
nation's capital. Since our founding in 1971, we have delved into an array of areas, but our work on each issue shares an overarching goal: To ensure that all citizens are represented in the halls of power. For four decades, we have proudly championed citizen interests before Congress, the executive branch agencies and the courts
We’re talking about inequality all wrong
by Laurence Kotlikoff 18/3/16 PBS NEWS
Democrats claim higher taxes on the rich and more benefits for the poor are the best ways to reduce inequality. Republicans argue what we really need is more growth, accomplished by lowering taxes to spur work and investment with, it seems, benefit cuts to make up lost revenue.
Why Fair Housing is Key to Systemic Equality
Few fights are more pivotal to ending systemic inequality than the fight for fair and stable housing. When Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a campaign to end slums in 1966, he connected the struggle to obtain decent housing with the need to end what he called slum schools, work, health care, and all forms of racial segregation. Today, fair housing remains the key to addressing deepening income inequality and forced displacement from our communities, as the long-lasting reach of discriminatory housing practices constantly shape who has access to quality education, health care, security, opportunity, and wealth.
The Case for Taxing the Rich Gets an Unexpected Boost
by Sam Pizzigati 31/5/22 COUNTERPUNCH
We’ve had quite a show up in the Alps this week, the first in-person gathering of the world’s mega rich since Covid hit. The occasion? The annual World Economic Forum at the Swiss resort of Davos, an ever-so-sober gathering that has an assortment of global deep thinkers sharing their wisdom with deep pockets ever eager for policy ideas that don’t involve sharing their wealth.
Exercise: Compare National Economic Performance as Reflected in Income Distribution
As author Daniel Yergin points out in the film (Episode Three: Chapter 18: The Global Divide), no economic system can survive for long without the confidence of the people who participate in it. Confidence in an economic system is shared among those who reap a benefit from it. The more widely distributed the economic benefit, the greater the legitimacy of the system and the stronger it stands. The distribution of benefits thus has political as well as material ramifications.
CBO Confirms With Trump-GOP 'Big, Ugly Law,' Working Families Lose 'And Billionaires Win'
by Jessica Corbett 11/8/25 Common Dreams
"This isn't shared sacrifice—it's class warfare," said one policy expert.
Why Robert Reich Cares so Passionately about Economic Inequality
by Robert Reich 15/10/13 PBS NEWS
Robert Reich:The argument is that inequality is bad for everyone, not just the middle class and poor. The rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy then they’re doing now with a large share of an economy that is barely growing at all. It’s not growing because there’s not enough purchasing power in the middle class, and the lower-middle class and everybody aspiring to join the middle class, to keep the economy going.
Inequality as Policy
by Dean Baker 1/11/16 COUNTERPUNCH
Starting with globalization, there was nothing pre-determined about a pattern of trade liberalization that put U.S. manufacturing workers in direct competition with their much lower paid counterparts in the developing world. Instead, that competition was the result of trade pacts written to make it as easy as possible for U.S. corporations to invest in the developing world to take advantage of lower labor costs, and then ship their products back to the United States.
Harris has proposed a slew of economic policies. Here’s a look at what’s in them
by Will Weissert 16/8/24 PBS NEWS
After years of polling showing that Americans are worried about inflation, Harris is aiming to contain prices where they have often been most conspicuously felt — at the grocery store. She’s promising to, during her first 100 days in office, send Congress proposed federal limits on price increases for food producers and grocers.
"Economic Inequality"
Student journalists draw attention to food cost disparities in low-income neighborhoods
