Income Inequality
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Articles
The Biggest Political Con of the Last Century Unmasked: But Why??????
by thomhartmann 21/5/25 DAILY KOS
Almost two-thirds of us Americans can’t afford the basic necessities of life, according to a new report from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) reported by CBS News. They point out that if unemployment numbers included the underemployed and those stuck in “poverty-wage jobs,” it would be around 24%, not the 4.2% recently reported, leading to an acknowledgement of a widespread misery that’s largely hidden by the way we currently calculate unemployment.
Why Did the Rich Pull Away from the Rest? Paul Krugman, Understanding Inequality: Part I
by Paul Krugman July 7, 2025 Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
Between World War II and the 1970s income disparities in America were relatively narrow. Some people were rich and many were poor, but overall inequality among Americans in terms of wealth, income and status was low enough that the country had a sense of shared prosperity. Things are very different today, as American society is beset by extreme inequality, economic fragmentation and class warfare.
What happened? The economic data show a huge widening of disparities in income and wealth starting around 1980, eventually undermining the relatively equal distribution of income we had from the ’40s to the ’70s. Moreover, growing disparities in income have led to growing disparities in political influence and the reemergence of what feels more and more like an oppressive class system.
The Importance of Worker Power. Paul Krugman, Understanding Inequality: Part II
by Paul Krugman July 14, 2025 Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
I’ll now begin to flesh out that argument. For the most part, however, today’s primer will be about the drivers of rising inequality between 1980 and 2000. Why stop there? Because I need more space and time to adequately discuss the effects of “financialization” and the rise of giant tech fortunes, which mostly kicked in after 2000 and accelerated the concentration of wealth at the very top. I’m well aware that these are also the factors driving today’s headlines. But the surge in inequality before 2000 set the stage for the oligarchic moment we’re now experiencing.
I’ll discuss the following:
1. Why power is key to the inequality story 2. Unions and why they matter 3. The rise of the imperial CEO
A Trumpian Diversion. Paul Krugman, Understanding Inequality: Part III
by Paul Krugman July 21, 2025 Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
Last week I promised that this week’s entry in my series of inequality primers would focus on the surge of giant fortunes since 2000. I’m going to break that promise and delay that entry, for two reasons. First, I’m still doing the research: high-end wealth inequality is not an issue I’ve worked on personally, so I need to do a lot of reading and talk to some specialists before weighing in.
But second, I have something more topical to discuss. This past week the GC CUNY Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, my academic base, held its annual workshop on Inequality by the Numbers. Mainly this involved research presentations by young scholars, but as an over-the-hill-guy academic statesman I was asked to give a relatively non-technical talk about stuff currently on my mind.
Oligarchs and the Rise of Mega-Fortunes. Paul Krugman, Understanding Inequality: Part IV
by Paul Krugman July 28, 2025 Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
Who said this?
If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it; what we have to determine now is whether we are big enough, whether we are men enough, whether we are free enough, to take possession again of the government which is our own.
No, it wasn’t Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It’s a quote from The New Freedom, Woodrow Wilson’s campaign platform in the 1912 presidential election.
Wilson was a vile racist, even for his time, and his reputation has suffered appropriately. But he was also a progressive on economic policy. And I’ve always been struck by the fact that in the early 20th century a politician could declare that great concentrations of wealth were a threat to democracy without being considered a radical, un-American Marxist. Wilson won that election!
Predatory Financialization. Paul Krugman, Understanding Inequality: Part V
by Paul Krugman August 4, 2025 Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
The fact is that financialization of the U.S. economy has been a major driver of rising inequality. What do I mean by financialization? Actually I mean two different but related things. One aspect is the extraordinary rise in the share of the U.S. economy devoted to financial activities as opposed to production of goods and services. A second is the pervasive way in which financiers and financial institutions like hedge funds and private equity have changed how even nonfinancial business operates. These changes have almost always increased inequality.
I will discuss the following:
1.The growth of the financial sector and what explains it 2.How growth in finance directly increases income and wealth inequality 3.How the increased role of Wall Street has changed the way the rest of the economy operates
‘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.
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.
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
EU leaders say Ukraine should have freedom to decide its future ahead of Trump-Putin summit
by Guardian staff and agencies 12/8/25 The Guardian
“Meaningful negotiations can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities,” the leaders said, adding that “we share the conviction that a diplomatic solution must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests.”
Less Work, More Time
by Madeleine Schwartz 25/9/15 DISSENT
Neither option on its own is desirable; together, they are unbearable. Life shouldn’t be reduced to a balance between waged work and housework, a balance between work and work. Instead, if we are concerned about fixing the “time bind,” we should do the unimaginable: ask for more time.
Juneteenth and the Need for a Reimagined, More Progressive Tax Code
by Brakeyshia Samms 18/6/24 Common Dreams
Though Black Americans are no longer taxed as property, their relationship with the property tax system remains challenging. Today, for instance, Black families pay more property taxes than white Americans who own comparable properties. Black people went from being literally taxed as property to being slighted by the property tax system – perpetuating deep economic inequality for a group of people who have always suffered on the soil of this land.
Why economists say falling inflation isn’t enough to relieve stress about the U.S. economy
by Christopher Rugaber 20/11/23 PBS NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation has reached its lowest point in 2 1/2 years. The unemployment rate has stayed below 4 percent for the longest stretch since the 1960s. And the U.S. economy has repeatedly defied predictions of a coming recession. Yet according to a raft of polls and surveys, most Americans hold a glum view of the economy.
Amid systemic inequality, U.S. salaries recover even as jobs haven’t
by Christopher Rugaber 12/2/21 PBS NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stark sign of the economic inequality that has marked the pandemic recession and recovery, Americans as a whole are now earning the same amount in wages and salaries that they did before the virus struck — even with nearly 9 million fewer people working.
Instead of Blaming Policymakers for High Prices, Thank Them for High Wages
by Josh Bivens 10/10/24 Common Dreams
This labor market strength was also 100% a policy choice. Unlike previous business cycles, policymakers passed fiscal relief and recovery measures at the scale of the shock, and it proved that low unemployment could be restored very quickly after recessions so long as this policy lever was pulled with enough force.
Economic Inequality Continued To Rise In The U.S. After The Great Recession
by Ben Casselman and Andrew Flowers 4/9/14 FiveThirtyEight
In the three years following the end of the Great Recession, the typical American family’s income declined 5 percent, its wealth fell 2 percent, it saved no more for retirement, and it was saddled with even more student debt. The only households to see income gains were the highest earners, and the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest widened.
The Rising Costs of U.S. Income Inequality
by Laura Tyson 6/12/17 HUFFPOST
BERKELEY, Calif. - During the last several decades, income inequality in the United States has increased significantly -- and the trend shows no sign of reversing. The last time inequality was as high as it is now was just before the Great Depression. Such a high level of inequality is not only incompatible with widely held norms of social justice and equality of opportunity; it poses a serious threat to America's economy and democracy.
Jamie Dimon on how economic inequality fueled political polarization and what can be done
by Judy Woodruff 14/8/24 PBS NEWS
From trade to diversity to immigration, many U.S. corporations are navigating a divisive political climate on a range of issues that impact their businesses. The CEO of the nation’s largest bank, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, has been speaking out about some of these. Judy Woodruff spoke with him in Bentonville, Arkansas, for her series, America at a Crossroads.
Radical Taxation
This spring, legislators of both parties, from Connecticut to Georgia, responded to higher energy prices with “gas tax holidays,” temporary tax reductions for consumers that provide an additional windfall to the immensely profitable fossil fuel industry at precisely the moment when we should be ending the global warming economy.
Higher Rates Of Hate Crimes Are Tied To Income Inequality
by Maimuna Majumder 23/1/17 FiveThirtyEight
An analysis of FBI and Southern Poverty Law Center data revealed one factor that stood out as a predictor of hate crimes and hate incidents in a given state: income inequality. States with more inequality were more likely to have higher rates of hate incidents per capita. This was true both before and after the election, and the connection held even after we controlled for other relevant variables.
by Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein 2014 DISSENT
There are many policies that can reduce inequality, but there is none as straightforward conceptually and as difficult politically as full employment. The basic point is simple: at low rates of unemployment, the demand for labor allows workers at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution to achieve gains in hourly wages, annual hours of work, and thus income.
Poverty Doesn’t Make You Racist
by Nathan Newman 26/6/19 DISSENT
Reaching the second group while maintaining a commitment to racial equality will be hard in the short term. But in contrast to the media stereotype of the Trump base—downwardly mobile, poor, and/or working-class people seduced by racist appeals—it turns out that white voters who support anti-racist policies generally have less income than their more racist peers, as data released recently from the General Social Survey makes clear.
How Inequality Distorts Economics
One of the urgent challenges facing the Biden administration is reversing the ever-worsening maldistribution of wealth. The more billionaires we have, and the more zeroes added to the net worth of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, the less there is for everyone else.
Bandage on a Bullet Wound
As the Covid-19 virus began to spread, shuttering businesses and upending economies, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, saw opportunity in the recovery from the unraveling crisis. Georgieva had already identified income and wealth inequality as a central challenge facing the global economy. In her view, the pandemic brought both the risk that poverty and inequality would exponentially worsen and a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to invest in recoveries that transform economies to make them “greener, smarter, and fairer.”
Systemic Equality is A Racial Justice Agenda
Since our nation’s founding, discriminatory policies and laws have created an unequal system in which Black communities have had their civil rights and liberties denied and have been systematically locked out of opportunities in education, housing, employment and more.
Six policies to reduce economic inequality
by john a. powell 10/9/14 Othering & Belonging Institute
Results from the Fed's 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances show that the top 3 percent own 54.4 percent of America's wealth, an increase of almost 45 percent since 1989 and the bottom 90 percent own only 24.7 percent of wealth, a drop of 33.2 percent over the same time period. Similarly, the share of total income for the top 3 percent of families rose when compared to 2010 but the bottom 90 percent of families saw their share of total income declinePerhaps not surprisingly, the survey found significant disparities by race, class, homeownership status and education; with income and wealth increasing for non-Hispanic whites, the rich, homeowners and those with more education while it decreased for blacks, lower income households, renters and those with less than a college education.
Government Policies to Reduce Income Inequality
No society should expect or desire complete equality of income at a given point in time, for a number of reasons. First, most workers receive relatively low earnings in their first few jobs, higher earnings as they reach middle age, and then lower earnings after retirement. Thus, a society with people of varying ages will have a certain amount of income inequality. Second, people’s preferences and desires differ. Some are willing to work long hours to have income for large houses, fast cars and computers, luxury vacations, and the ability to support children and grandchildren.
Spreading the Wealth
by FRANÇOIS BOURGUIGNON 3/18 INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
In countries where growth is satisfactory but benefits the poor much less than the non-poor, there obviously is a strong case for shifting resources from those at the top of the income scale to those at the bottom. Giving poor children access to better education and paying for it by taxing the affluent is one way to reduce inequality while also fostering future growth and poverty reduction. Redistributive policies could also help narrow the gap between rich and poor in countries with high inequality, where social and political tensions or the rise of populist regimes might prove bad for growth in the long run.
Policy cocktails: Attacking the roots of persistent inequality
by Matthew O. Jackson 3/21 Stanford
As inequality in the U.S. has risen to levels that characterized the Great Depression and the Gilded Age, discussion has grown around a variety of policies that tax and redistribute wealth and income. However, overcoming recurring waves of economic inequality requires more than safety nets and spreading money around.
Income Inequality
Over the past four decades, the richest 1 percent of Americans have enjoyed by far the fastest income growth. The most rapid increase has occurred at the tippy top of the economic ladder. Between 1979 and 2021, the average income of the richest 0.01 percent of households, a group that today represents just over 12,000 households, grew nearly 27 times as fast as the income of the bottom 20 percent of earners. These Congressional Budget Office figures include income from labor and investments, and do not account for taxes or means-tested public assistance, such as food stamps or Medicaid.
Rising inequality: A major issue of our time
by Zia Qureshi 16/5/23 BOOKINGS
Income and wealth inequality has risen in many countries in recent decades. Rising inequality and related disparities and anxieties have been stoking social discontent and are a major driver of the increased political polarization and populist nationalism that are so evident today. An increasingly unequal society can weaken trust in public institutions and undermine democratic governance. Mounting global disparities can imperil geopolitical stability. Rising inequality has emerged as an important topic of political debate and a major public policy concern.
Policy Implications from Rising Economic Inequality
by Kimberly Clausing and Hilary Hoynes 13/11/18 ECONOFACT
A marked increase in income inequality has been a defining characteristic of the U.S. economy of the past several decades. Progressive tax policy and a social safety net that invests in those at the bottom of the income distribution play a role in mitigating widening inequality in the United States.
How do taxes affect income inequality?
The US federal tax system mitigates income inequality. High-income households pay a larger share of their income in total federal taxes than low-income households (figure 2). State and local taxes, which are not included in this analysis, are much less progressive and some, such as sales taxes, are regressive (low-income households pay a higher share of their income in sales taxes than high-income households).
Inequality’s drag on aggregate demand
by Josh Bivens and Asha Banerjee 4/5/22 Economic Policy Institute
Rising inequality has had serious economic and fiscal effects. Key among them: It has hurt economic growth. By 2018, the rise in income inequality since 1979 was reducing growth in aggregate demand by about 1.5% of GDP.
Reduce Extreme Economic Inequality
Among high-income countries, the US ranks at the top for both income and wealth inequality.
This extreme economic inequality is not inevitable; thoughtful policies can – and have – made our economy fairer and more just
What Is Economic Inequality?
This divide is one indicator of economic inequality, an issue that affects the United States more than almost any other developed country in the world.
Regulation and income inequality in the United States
by Dustin Chambers 3/22 ScienceDirect
Income inequality in the United States has risen over the past several decades. Over the same period, federal regulatory restrictions have increased. An emerging literature shows that regulations can have regressive effects on the distribution of income, exacerbating inequality.
Income Inequality and Global Political Polarization: The Economic Origin of Political Polarization in the World
by Yanfeng Gu National Library Of Medicine
Both income inequality and political polarization have increased dramatically in much of the world over the past few decades. One might wonder how these two phenomena correlate with each other. Are there any striking similarities in the correlated patterns of income inequality and polarization across the globe? More importantly, how can improved equality in income distribution contribute to mitigate political polarization?
The facts about global wealth inequality
Have you ever wondered why some people have so much and others have so little? We can all see that the world is unequal, but how did it get this way and what problems does this inequality create?
Trends in income and wealth inequality
[https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/ by Juliana Menasce Horowitz 9/1/20 Pew Research Center]
Barely 10 years past the end of the Great Recession in 2009, the U.S. economy is doing well on several fronts. The labor market is on a job-creating streak that has rung up more than 110 months straight of employment growth, a record for the post-World War II era. The unemployment rate in November 2019 was 3.5%, a level not seen since the 1960s. Gains on the jobs front are also reflected in household incomes, which have rebounded in recent years.
Income Inequality in California
by Tess Thorman and Daniel Payares-Montoya PPIC
In 2023 (the most recent data available), families at the top of the income distribution—the 90th percentile—earned 11 times more than families at the 10th percentile ($336,000 vs. $30,000, respectively). Only two other states had wider income gaps.
Rising Economic Inequality in the US: Key Statistics and Root Causes
Since its beginning, the United States has prided itself on being the land of opportunity, a place in which all individuals have the opportunity to succeed. Many people continue to refer to it as such, but a closer look at wealth and income distribution in the U.S. tells a different story. To the extent to which success depends on economic status and mobility, the notion that the U.S. is still the land of opportunity is simply false. Since the 1970s, economic inequality in the U.S. has skyrocketed, leaving many Americans living paycheck to paycheck while the nation’s top earners hoard all the gains from economic growth. The rise in economic inequality can be attributed to various factors that are often still debated, but a common theme among many of the causes rests on the enactment of legislation geared towards helping the wealthy and against the protection of workers.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
The incomes of the poorest 40 per cent of the population had been growing faster than the national average in most countries. But emerging yet inconclusive evidence suggests that COVID-19 may have put a dent in this positive trend of falling within-country inequality.
6 Policies to Combat Inequality
When President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address Tuesday, it is widely expected that he will focus on income inequality, making it a top-of-the-agenda item for this year and the remainder of his term. In his December speech hosted by the Center for American Progress, the president likely offered a preview of his message as he argued that a strong middle class helps drive economic growth:
Income Inequality & Monopoly
America is more unequal than it has been in a century. The richest 0.1 percent of American families own as much wealth as the lower 90 percent of all American families combined. Between 1979 and 2007, the richest one percent took in 53.9 percent of all income growth. And wealth inequality grew even more dramatic in the wake of the great recession. The richest 7 percent expanded their average neat worth by more than 25 percent between 2009 and 2011, and whites claimed an even larger proportion of American wealth relative to Blacks and Hispanics.
Should Equity Be a Goal of Economic Policy?
by International Monetary Fund
The Economic Issues series aims to make available to a broad readership of nonspecialists some of the economic research being produced on topical issues by IMF staff. The series draws mainly from IMF Working Papers, which are technical papers produced by IMF staff members and visiting scholars, as well as from policy-related research papers.
Economic Inequality
by Joe Hasell Economic Inequality
This evidence shows us that inequality in many countries is very high and, in many cases, has been on the rise. Global economic inequality is vast and compounded by overlapping inequalities in health, education, and many other dimensions.
The Politics of American Inequality
by Jaehee Choi, James K. Galbraith Intereconomics
Rising economic inequality in the United States is closely tied to the high concentration of capital asset ownership, especially corporate stocks and real estate, and to increases in the price of those assets in recent decades. These in turn are closely related to the structural transformation of the economy over 50 years, especially the decline of unionized manufacturing in the Midwest and the rise of finance on the East coast and of the technology sector – mainly information and aerospace – in the West.
Corporations are fuelling inequality. Here's how
by Amitabh Behar 15/1/24 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
In stark contrast, the world’s richest are enjoying wondrous prosperity. New research from Oxfam shows that the five richest men have seen their fortunes more than double since 2020. Billionaires are $3.3 trillion (34%) richer compared to the beginning of this decade of crisis, with their wealth growing three times as fast as the rate of inflation.
Neoliberal Policies, Institutions Have Prompted Preference for Greater Inequality, New Study Finds
Neoliberalism, which calls for free-market capitalism, regressive taxation, and the elimination of social services, has resulted in both preference and support for greater income inequality over the past 25 years, shows a new study by a team of psychology researchers.
What different ways can policy-makers address inequality?
[https://www.economicsobservatory.com/what-different-ways-can-policy-makers-address-inequality by Stefanie Stantcheva 27/7/21 Economics Observatory]
These challenges are daunting and need to be tackled at a variety of levels. Rather than thinking about policies in isolation—education or work or redistribution from higher to lower incomes—policies should be considered jointly. Redistribution is key but it needs to be combined with appropriate ‘pre-redistribution’—interventions to improve economic opportunities.
Income inequality
Income is defined as household disposable income in a particular year. It consists of earnings, self-employment and capital income and public cash transfers however, income taxes and social security contributions paid by households are deducted. Inequality is also described as the gap between rich and poor, income inequality, wealth disparity, wealth and income differences, or the wealth gap.
Poverty, Income Inequality and Economic Growth
by Tejvan Pettinger 28/11/16 ECONOMICS
Economic growth often creates the best opportunities for those who are highly skilled and educated. In recent years, in the UK, we have seen faster wage growth for highly paid jobs than unskilled jobs.
Economic inequality leads to democratic erosion, study finds
by Sarah Steimer 17/1/25 Uchicago News
According to study coauthor University of Chicago Prof. Susan Stokes, the research team was interested in situating the phenomenon of backsliding democracies in time: Why, in the early part of the 21st century, are we seeing power-grabbing, elected heads of government in two dozen countries?
How political ideas keep economic inequality going
by Christina Pazzanese 3/3/20 The Harvard Gazette
As the gulf between the haves and the have nots continues to widen, the roiling debate over economic inequality has become a political prime mover in the U.S. and across Europe. French economist Thomas Piketty’s 2013 landmark analysis of Western economic inequality, “Capital in the 21st Century,” became a must-read in both popular and academic circles.
Income Inequality 101: Causes, Facts, Examples, Ways to Take Action
When some people in society earn significantly more than others, it creates inequality. Inequality is more than just about the paychecks we take home, however. There’s also wealth inequality, which refers to uneven distributions of wealth. This includes the value of assets and possessions like stocks, property, boats, and so on. Someone may earn a lower income than a neighbor, but because they own stocks and land, they’re wealthier.
To Fight Inequality, America Needs to Rethink Its Economic Model
by Daniel Chandler 14/5/24 TIME
The recent revival of industrial policy, championed by President Biden, is a clear repudiation of the first of these beliefs. It reflects a growing recognition among economists that state intervention to shape markets and steer investment is crucial for fostering innovation, protecting strategically important sectors like semi-conductors, and tackling the climate emergency.
Household income in the United States is unevenly distributed
Over the past four decades, average household income grew by 95 percent after adjusting for inflation; however, that growth largely stems from earners in the top part of the income-distribution. Average income in the highest quintile was 165 percent higher in 2021 than it was in 1981 — over four times the growth of average income in the lowest quintile (38 percent over the period). Meanwhile, the median household income grew by just 33 percent. Those statistics do not account for the effect of taxes or transfer programs such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; such programs provide cash payments or other forms of assistance to people with relatively low income or few assets.
Unfair State Tax Codes Also Exacerbate Racial Inequity
by Misha Hill 22/3/19 Common Dreams
Nationwide, the lowest-income households contribute, on average, 11 percent of their income in state and local taxes while the top 1 percent of households contribute just 7 percent of their income--that's a tax rate that is 50 percent higher for families working hard to make ends meet than for the wealthiest 1 percent. The tax systems of 45 states widen the income gap between their most affluent residents and lower- and middle-income families. State and local tax systems also worsen existing racial disparities.
Democracy Cannot Thrive Without Thriving Labor Unions
by Jake Grumbach 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. Over the same period, U.S. workers’ productivity doubled.2 Meanwhile, the richest 10 percent in the United States are now taking half of the economic pie, while the top 1 percent is taking more than one fifth. Wealthy individuals’ share of national income was stable for the first several decades after World War II, but started increasing in the early 1980s, and then rose even faster in the era of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA expansion pacts.
Wage Inequality Continued to Increase in 2020
by Lawrence Mishel 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 lise 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 minimum wage is a New Deal era policy established initially through the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, of 1938. The original bill set a wage floor, instituted a 44-hour work week, and protected children from prematurely entering the workforce. Since its inception, the FLSA has been amended multiple times, with added exemptions and expansions specifying which groups of workers are covered under different aspects of the law.
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
by Michael Jacobs and Mariana Mazzucato 2017 DISSENT
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.
Our Inequality: An Introduction
by Colin Gordon 6/3/14 DISSENT
Inequality is greater now than it has been at any time in the last century, and the gaps in wages, income, and wealth are wider in the United States than in any other democratic and developed economy. Yet we lack a clear and compelling account of how and why we arrived this point. Our current economic troubles have aimed a spotlight at our inequality problem, but they did not create it.
How the Deck is Stacked: Income Inequality in the U.S. - Lesson Plan
Watch this PBS NewsHour video story ‘Land of the Free, Home of the Poor’ to see other Americans participate in the survey you completed for a warm-up. Why do you think participants underestimated income inequality in the U.S. to such a significant degree? Why did the low-income workers have a more realistic sense of income inequality? Is it a problem that Americans do not know how much income inequality exists in the U.S.?
=====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
Many of these students compete for limited spots at universities that use “legacy status” as a factor when weighing admissions — a practice that disproportionately gives preference to white and wealthy student applicants whose family member is an alumni of the college or university they’re applying to. Ending these legacy admissions practices is a critical step that can help address long-standing disparities and inequality in higher education while increasing access for underrepresented students who have been historically shut out.
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.” As I wrote last month, the 2016 election has marked a distinct shift in the political message of both parties, away from promises to grow the economic pie and toward discussions of how to divide it up more fairly.
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
The “American dream” has long been regarded as the pinnacle of success, rewarded to all who display hard work and pick themselves up by their bootstraps when life knocks them down. This might be our culture’s prevailing narrative, but it actually rarely bears out this way. The truth is that our system is full of inequities that put large swaths of people in our country at significant odds with building wealth.
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 Hilary Wething 20/9/24 Common Dreams
Absent federal action, states and localities have expanded workers’ ability to earn paid sick leave to care for themselves and their families.
Three Numbers That Help Explain What Happened to Inequality During the Pandemic
by James O'Donnell 14/3/23 FRONTLINE
Here, FRONTLINE takes a closer look at three figures that help show how wealth, wages and racial wealth inequality changed during the pandemic. The overall story of inequality is larger than these numbers can illustrate and is affected by much more than just Fed policies, but these figures offer a window into how the highs and lows of the last three years affected certain groups.
Americans are more concerned about wealth-based achievement gaps than race
[https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/what-causes-achievement-gaps by Kenya Downs 12/8/16 PBS NEWS}
More Americans acknowledge wealth inequality-based achievement gaps — and are willing to create policies to combat them — than race-based disparities in education, according to new research published in the Educational Researcher. Respondents were also more prepared to explain the sources of these wealth-based gaps, from parenting and student motivation to injustice and discrimination.
The U.S. has Made Great Progress at Increasing Economic Inequality
by Rick Baum 9/6/23 COUNTERPUNCH
One of the more impressive accomplishments of the United States in recent decades is how it has achieved greater economic inequality in line with what Marx expected from a capitalist economy. There are periods of setbacks—in which economic inequality is reduced–followed by improvements resulting in even higher levels of inequality.
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 have successfully challenged the abusive practices of the pharmaceutical, nuclear and automobile industries, and many others
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.
Research Shows 'Linking Climate Policy to Social and Economic Justice Makes It More Popular'
by Jessica Corbett 12/6/20 Common Dreams
The protests sparked by Minneapolis police killing George Floyd have renewed pressure on all levels of government to pursue racial justice--and not just in terms of police violence against historically marginalized groups, particularly black Americans, but also when it comes to economic and environmental injustice.
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
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is out with a string of new economic proposals focused on food prices, taxes, housing and medical costs that she says will empower the middle class.
Baby Bonds: A Path Toward Prosperity for Future Generations
by Abrigale Johnson 13/10/23 ACLU
Being born into poverty often determines what the rest of your life looks like — not just for you, but for your kids and the generations that follow. Babies born into poverty face limited opportunities and begin their adult lives at a significant disadvantage. This persistent disparity is a major obstacle to achieving systemic equality.
Tag: "Economic Inequality"
Student journalists draw attention to food cost disparities in low-income neighborhoods
Forty-four of 50 US states worsen inequality with ‘upside-down’ taxes
by Oliver Milman 10/1/24 The Guardian
State and local tax regimes are “upside-down”, the new research finds, with weak or non-existent personal income taxes in many states allowing richer Americans to avoid tax. A reliance on sales and excise taxes, considered regressive because they disproportionately impact the poor, has helped fuel this inequality, according to the report.
The US president deployed troops after taking control of DC police, sparking fears of similar moves elsewhere
by David Smith 12/8/25 The Guardian
Speaking after a meeting with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, at the justice department, Bowser told reporters: “I won’t go into the details of our operational plan at this point but you will see the Metropolitan police department (MPD) working side by side with our federal partners in order to enforce the effort that we need around the city.”
Student Debt is a Racial Justice Issue. Here’s What President Biden Can Do to Help.
Higher education has long been held as a critical gateway to getting a job and achieving economic stability and mobility. But because of long-standing systemic racial discrimination, Black families have far less wealth to draw on to pay for college, creating barriers for Black communities to access higher education and build wealth. Black families are more likely to borrow, to borrow more, and to have trouble in repayment. Two decades after taking out their student loans, the median Black borrower still owes 95 percent of their debt, whereas the median white borrower has paid off 94 percent of their debt.
Less Work, More Time
by Madeleine Schwartz 25/9/15 DISSENT
Neither option on its own is desirable; together, they are unbearable. Life shouldn’t be reduced to a balance between waged work and housework, a balance between work and work. Instead, if we are concerned about fixing the “time bind,” we should do the unimaginable: ask for more time.
Juneteenth and the Need for a Reimagined, More Progressive Tax Code
by Brakeyshia Samms 18/6/24 Common Dreams
Though Black Americans are no longer taxed as property, their relationship with the property tax system remains challenging. Today, for instance, Black families pay more property taxes than white Americans who own comparable properties. Black people went from being literally taxed as property to being slighted by the property tax system – perpetuating deep economic inequality for a group of people who have always suffered on the soil of this land.
Why economists say falling inflation isn’t enough to relieve stress about the U.S. economy
by Christopher Rugaber 20/11/23 PBS NEWS
Last week, the government reported that consumer prices didn’t rise at all from September to October, the latest sign that inflation is steadily cooling from the heights of last year. A separate report showed that while Americans slowed their retail purchases in October from the previous month’s brisk pace, they’re still spending enough to drive economic growth.
Amid systemic inequality, U.S. salaries recover even as jobs haven’t
by Christopher Rugaber 12/2/21 PBS NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stark sign of the economic inequality that has marked the pandemic recession and recovery, Americans as a whole are now earning the same amount in wages and salaries that they did before the virus struck — even with nearly 9 million fewer people working.
Instead of Blaming Policymakers for High Prices, Thank Them for High Wages
by Josh Bivens 10/10/24 Common Dreams
This labor market strength was also 100% a policy choice. Unlike previous business cycles, policymakers passed fiscal relief and recovery measures at the scale of the shock, and it proved that low unemployment could be restored very quickly after recessions so long as this policy lever was pulled with enough force.
Economic Inequality Continued To Rise In The U.S. After The Great Recession
by Ben Casselman 4/9/14 FiveThirtyEight
In the three years following the end of the Great Recession, the typical American family’s income declined 5 percent, its wealth fell 2 percent, it saved no more for retirement, and it was saddled with even more student debt. The only households to see income gains were the highest earners, and the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest widened.
The Rising Costs of U.S. Income Inequality
by Laura Tyson 1/12/14 HUFFPOST
Underlying the country's soaring inequality is income stagnation for the majority of Americans. With an expanding share of the gains from economic growth flowing to a tiny fraction of high-income U.S. households, average family income for the bottom 90 percent has been flat since 1980.
Jamie Dimon on how economic inequality fueled political polarization and what can be done
by Judy Woodruff 14/8/24 PBS NEWS
From trade to diversity to immigration, many U.S. corporations are navigating a divisive political climate on a range of issues that impact their businesses. The CEO of the nation’s largest bank, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, has been speaking out about some of these. Judy Woodruff spoke with him in Bentonville, Arkansas, for her series, America at a Crossroads.
Radical Taxation
by Vanessa Williamson 2022 DISSENT
This spring, legislators of both parties, from Connecticut to Georgia, responded to higher energy prices with “gas tax holidays,” temporary tax reductions for consumers that provide an additional windfall to the immensely profitable fossil fuel industry at precisely the moment when we should be ending the global warming economy. Thirty-six years after Grover Norquist first introduced the “taxpayer protection pledge”—by which thousands of legislators have committed to oppose all tax increases—American policymaking remains trapped in an anti-tax paradigm that leaves us unable to cope with the crises we face.
Higher Rates Of Hate Crimes Are Tied To Income Inequality
by Maimuna Majumder 23/1/17 FiveThirtyEight
The numbers we have are tricky; the data is limited by how it’s collected and can’t definitively tell us whether there were more hate incidents in the days after the election than is typical. What we can do, however, is look for trends within the numbers, such as how hate crimes vary by state, as well as what factors within those states might be tied to hate crime rates.
by Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein 17/11/11 DISSENT
Levels of unemployment are not the gift or curse of the gods; they are the result of conscious economic policy. The decision to tolerate high rates of unemployment is a choice. It is one that has enormous implications not just for the millions of people who are needlessly unemployed or underemployed but also for tens of millions of workers in the bottom half of the wage distribution whose bar-gaining power is undermined by high unemployment.
Poverty Doesn’t Make You Racist
by Nathan Newman 26/6/19 DISSENT
Reaching the second group while maintaining a commitment to racial equality will be hard in the short term. But in contrast to the media stereotype of the Trump base—downwardly mobile, poor, and/or working-class people seduced by racist appeals—it turns out that white voters who support anti-racist policies generally have less income than their more racist peers, as data released recently from the General Social Survey makes clear.
10 Years of Economic Loss and Recovery
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
How Inequality Distorts Economics
One of the urgent challenges facing the Biden administration is reversing the ever-worsening maldistribution of wealth. The more billionaires we have, and the more zeroes added to the net worth of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, the less there is for everyone else.
Migration and development
by Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah 9/05 GLOBAL MISSION ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
These mutual impacts are often in sharpest relief in the context of economic development.
Here, what we might call the ‘development-migration-development’ nexus becomes of great interest. Put simply, we know that migration is often motivated by relative disparities in the economic development of sending and receiving countries (though generally not in the case of those move to seek political asylum).
Bandage on a Bullet Wound
As the Covid-19 virus began to spread, shuttering businesses and upending economies, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, saw opportunity in the recovery from the unraveling crisis. Georgieva had already identified income and wealth inequality as a central challenge facing the global economy.
Systemic Equality: Equal Access, Better Futures
Since our nation’s founding, discriminatory policies and laws have created an unequal system in which Black communities have had their civil rights and liberties denied and have been systematically locked out of opportunities in education, housing, employment and more.
Six policies to reduce economic inequality
by john a. powell 10/9/14 Othering & Belonging Institute
Following the Inequality Policy Brief, here are six ways to minimize the rising economic inequality prevalent in the United States. Haas Institute Director john a. powell discusses why these policies will work in slowing the growth in inequality.
Almost three years to the date since Occupy Wall Street first raised the consciousness of Americans about the wide economic disparities between the richest one percent versus the 99 percent of U.S. earners, new Federal Reserve data confirms that wealth and income inequality in the U.S. is accelerating.
Government Policies to Reduce Income Inequality
No society should expect or desire complete equality of income at a given point in time, for a number of reasons. First, most workers receive relatively low earnings in their first few jobs, higher earnings as they reach middle age, and then lower earnings after retirement. Thus, a society with people of varying ages will have a certain amount of income inequality. Second, people’s preferences and desires differ. Some are willing to work long hours to have income for large houses, fast cars and computers, luxury vacations, and the ability to support children and grandchildren.
Spreading the Wealth
by INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND 3/18
After years of quasi-neglect, economic inequality has taken center stage in the policy debate worldwide. In advanced economies, the apparent impact of globalization and technological change and the cost of counteracting these forces is raising concern.
Policy cocktails: Attacking the roots of persistent inequality
by Matthew O. Jackson 5/21 Stanford
Patterns of inequality are a manifestation of major barriers faced by millions in finding paths from poverty to middle- or upper-class lives. They often lack not only financial capital but also a vital form of social capital: information about and access to the educational and employment opportunities necessary to break the cross-generation perpetuation of economic immobility.
Income Inequality in the United States
Income includes the revenue streams from wages, salaries, interest on a savings account, dividends from shares of stock, rent, and profits from selling something for more than you paid for it. Unlike wealth statistics, income figures do not include the value of homes, stock, or other possessions. Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population.
Rising inequality: A major issue of our time
by Zia Qureshi 16/5/23 BROOKINGS
Current inequality levels are high. Contemporary global inequalities are close to the peak levels observed in the early 20th century, at the end of the prewar era (variously described as the Belle Époque or the Gilded Age) that saw sharp increases in global inequality.
A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality
by Arloc Sherman 11/12/24 Center On Budget and Policy Priorities
This guide consists of four sections. The first describes the commonly used sources and statistics on income and discusses their relative strengths and limitations for understanding income trends.
Policy Implications from Rising Economic Inequality
by Kimberly Clausing and Hilary Hoynes 13/11/18 ECONOFACT
A marked increase in income inequality has been a defining characteristic of the U.S. economy of the past several decades. Progressive tax policy and a social safety net that invests in those at the bottom of the income distribution play a role in mitigating widening inequality in the United States.
Legal Milestones That Fight Income Inequality
by Daniel Thomas Mollenkamp 4/4/24 Investopedia
Income inequality in the U.S. is particularly high for a developed economy. At numerous times during its history, the country has attempted to address the issue through policy, legislation, and judicial decisions. This has included efforts to promote equal pay, to prevent discrimination, and to deal with other types of bias that can foster inequality. Though income inequality persists, previous milestones may provide a roadmap for future attempts to address the matter.
How do taxes affect income inequality?
The US federal tax system mitigates income inequality. High-income households pay a larger share of their income in total federal taxes than low-income households (figure 2). State and local taxes, which are not included in this analysis, are much less progressive and some, such as sales taxes, are regressive (low-income households pay a higher share of their income in sales taxes than high-income households).
Inequality’s drag on aggregate demand
by Josh Bivens and Asha Banerjee 24/5/22 Economic Policy Institute
Rising inequality has had serious economic and fiscal effects. Key among them: It has hurt economic growth. By 2018, the rise in income inequality since 1979 was reducing growth in aggregate demand by about 1.5% of GDP.
Reduce Extreme Economic Inequality
This brief presents a new set of recommendations for reducing extreme economic divides,
adding to earlier recommendations posed as part of the Grand Challenge.1 In this brief, we focus on interventions with popular or political momentum, including newer ideas, such as innovative ways to support entrepreneurship, as well as longstanding ideas with new evidence or action such as basic income.
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY
by SIMON KUZNETS 3/1955 The American Economic Review
The central theme of this paper is the character and causes of longterm changes in the personal distribution of income. Does inequality
in the distribution of income increase or decrease in the course of a country's economic growth? What factors determine the secular level and trends of income inequalities?
What Is Economic Inequality?
Institutions like the United Nations have prioritized reducing economic inequality given that it can fuel democratic backsliding, influence migration, hamper economic growth, and exacerbate health crises. However, no one-size-fits-all solution exists to address this problem. And not everyone agrees inequality is a major cause for concern in the first place.
Regulation and income inequality in the United States
by Dustin Chambers 3/22 ScienceDirect
Income inequality in the United States has risen over the past several decades. Over the same period, federal regulatory restrictions have increased. An emerging literature shows that regulations can have regressive effects on the distribution of income, exacerbating inequality. The Federal Regulation and State Enterprise (FRASE) index quantifies the regulatory restrictions that apply to each US state by industrial composition.
Income Inequality and Global Political Polarization: The Economic Origin of Political Polarization in the World
Both income inequality and political polarization have increased dramatically in much of the world over the past few decades. One might wonder how these two phenomena correlate with each other. Are there any striking similarities in the correlated patterns of income inequality and polarization across the globe?
The facts about global wealth inequality
The truth is that very poor people have seen their wealth increase modestly, while the very wealthy have made fantastic gains. This means inequality is on the rise within many individual countries.
Most Americans Say There Is Too Much Economic Inequality in the U.S., but Fewer Than Half Call It a Top Priority
[https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/ by Juliana Menasce Horowitz 9/1/20 Pew Research Center]
Barely 10 years past the end of the Great Recession in 2009, the U.S. economy is doing well on several fronts. The labor market is on a job-creating streak that has rung up more than 110 months straight of employment growth, a record for the post-World War II era. The unemployment rate in November 2019 was 3.5%, a level not seen since the 1960s. Gains on the jobs front are also reflected in household incomes, which have rebounded in recent years.
Income Inequality in California
by Tess Thorman and Daniel Payares-Montoya 3/25 PPIC
In 2023 (the most recent data available), families at the top of the income distribution—the 90th percentile—earned 11 times more than families at the 10th percentile ($336,000 vs. $30,000, respectively). Only two other states had wider income gaps.
Designing economic policy that strengthens U.S. democracy and incorporates people’s lived experiences
by Alexander Hertel-Fernandez,Shayna Strom 30/4/25 Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Around the globe, people are increasingly dissatisfied with the state of democratic capitalism. In the United States and other rich democracies, economic policy has too often in recent decades produced rising economic inequality across individuals, as well as regions within countries, stagnant economic growth and innovation, rising costs of essential goods and services such as housing, health care, and education, greater economic insecurity, and declining job quality and stability.
Rising Economic Inequality in the US: Key Statistics and Root Causes
Since its beginning, the United States has prided itself on being the land of opportunity, a place in which all individuals have the opportunity to succeed. Many people continue to refer to it as such, but a closer look at wealth and income distribution in the U.S. tells a different story. To the extent to which success depends on economic status and mobility, the notion that the U.S. is still the land of opportunity is simply false.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
by SUSTAINABLE DEVWLOPMENT GOALS
The incomes of the poorest 40 per cent of the population had been growing faster than the national average in most countries. But emerging yet inconclusive evidence suggests that COVID-19 may have put a dent in this positive trend of falling within-country inequality.
6 Policies to Combat Inequality
When President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address Tuesday, it is widely expected that he will focus on income inequality, making it a top-of-the-agenda item for this year and the remainder of his term. In his December speech hosted by the Center for American Progress, the president likely offered a preview of his message as he argued that a strong middle class helps drive economic growth
Income Inequality & Monopoly
America is more unequal than it has been in a century. The richest 0.1 percent of American families own as much wealth as the lower 90 percent of all American families combined. Between 1979 and 2007, the richest one percent took in 53.9 percent of all income growth. And wealth inequality grew even more dramatic in the wake of the great recession. The richest 7 percent expanded their average neat worth by more than 25 percent between 2009 and 2011, and whites claimed an even larger proportion of American wealth relative to Blacks and Hispanics.
Should Equity Be a Goal of Economic Policy?
by International Monetary Fund
The Economic Issues series aims to make available to a broad readership of nonspecialists some of the economic research being produced on topical issues by IMF staff. The series draws mainly from IMF Working Papers, which are technical papers produced by IMF staff members and visiting scholars, as well as from policy-related research papers.
Why We Have Trouble Supporting Greater Income Equality
by Jill Suttie 12/6/25 POLITICS
According to data from the Congressional Budget Office, wealth inequality has been rising steeply in the United States over the last 30 years. This gap between rich and poor means that the top 1% of earners now own nearly 30% of the total wealth in the country, with the bottom 50% owning only 4% of that wealth.
Income and wages
The House Republicans’ plan to cut Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the rich would slash incomes for the bottom 40%
The Politics of American Inequality
by Jaehee Choi, James K. Galbraith Interconomics
Rising economic inequality in the United States is closely tied to the high concentration of capital asset ownership, especially corporate stocks and real estate, and to increases in the price of those assets in recent decades. These in turn are closely related to the structural transformation of the economy over 50 years, especially the decline of unionized manufacturing in the Midwest and the rise of finance on the East coast and of the technology sector – mainly information and aerospace – in the West.
Corporations are fuelling inequality. Here's how
by Amitabh Behar WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
The problems in the world today are daunting. Many countries are locked in conflict; the frequency of extreme weather events is on the rise and, every day, we see the distress of families who have lost everything. Millions of people are still grappling with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic while contending with escalating cost of living. Five billion people are poorer than they were in 2020.
Neoliberal Policies, Institutions Have Prompted Preference for Greater Inequality, New Study Finds
Neoliberalism, which calls for free-market capitalism, regressive taxation, and the elimination of social services, has resulted in both preference and support for greater income inequality over the past 25 years, shows a new study by a team of psychology researchers.
What different ways can policy-makers address inequality?
by Stefanie Stantcheva 27/7/21 Economics Observatory
Economic and social inequalities take many forms: many have been widened by Covid-19. Across the income distribution, consumption, savings, job losses and the opportunities for remote work have evolved very differently. Across genders and between parents and those without children, the toll of school closures, lack of childcare and additional housework has been uneven. And across regions, sectors and occupations, the pandemic has brought vastly different burdens.
Income inequality is the difference in how income is distributed among the population.
Income is defined as household disposable income in a particular year. It consists of earnings, self-employment and capital income and public cash transfers however, income taxes and social security contributions paid by households are deducted. Inequality is also described as the gap between rich and poor, income inequality, wealth disparity, wealth and income differences, or the wealth gap.
Poverty, Income Inequality and Economic Growth
by Tejvan Pettinger 28/11/16 ECONOMICS
Economic growth means an increase in national income, but does economic growth actually help to reduce relative poverty and income inequality – or can economic growth exacerbate existing income inequalities?
Economic inequality leads to democratic erosion, study finds
by Sarah Steimer 17/1/25 Uchicago
Political commentators, academics and others have been wringing their hands over threats to democracy in recent years. A new study helps us better understand one of the possible driving forces behind the erosion of democratic norms and institutions: economic inequality.
How political ideas keep economic inequality going
by Christina Pazzanese 3/3/20 The Harvard Gazette
As the gulf between the haves and the have nots continues to widen, the roiling debate over economic inequality has become a political prime mover in the U.S. and across Europe. French economist Thomas Piketty’s 2013 landmark analysis of Western economic inequality, “Capital in the 21st Century,” became a must-read in both popular and academic circles. Now, he’s back with “Capital and Ideology” (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020), a global look at the history of the problem, how institutions and ideologies reinforce it, and how it can be remedied.
Income Inequality 101: Causes, Facts, Examples, Ways to Take Action
Income inequality is a global issue with several causes, including historical racism, unequal land distribution, high inflation, and stagnant wages. As gaps increase thanks to crises like COVID-19, the world needs to take action in education, labor market policies, tax reforms, and higher wages.
To Fight Inequality, America Needs to Rethink Its Economic Model
by Daniel Chandler 14/5/24 TIME
The recent revival of industrial policy, championed by President Biden, is a clear repudiation of the first of these beliefs. It reflects a growing recognition among economists that state intervention to shape markets and steer investment is crucial for fostering innovation, protecting strategically important sectors like semi-conductors, and tackling the climate emergency.
5 Facts About Rising Income Inequality in the United States
by PETER G.PETERSON FOUNDATION
Over the past four decades, average household income grew by 95 percent after adjusting for inflation; however, that growth largely stems from earners in the top part of the income-distribution. Average income in the highest quintile was 165 percent higher in 2021 than it was in 1981 — over four times the growth of average income in the lowest quintile (38 percent over the period). Meanwhile, the median household income grew by just 33 percent. Those statistics do not account for the effect of taxes or transfer programs such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; such programs provide cash payments or other forms of assistance to people with relatively low income or few assets.
