How American Income Inequality Hit Levels Not Seen Since The Depression

[laughingliberal]

WASHINGTON (Reuters, By Emily Kaiser) - In 2007, when the world was on the brink of financial crisis, U.S. income inequality hit its highest mark since 1928, just before the Great Depression.

Coincidence? Maybe not.

Economists are only beginning to study the parallels between the 1920s and the most recent decade to try to understand why both periods ended in financial disaster. Their early findings suggest inequality may not directly cause crises, but it can be a contributing factor.

This raises a host of social, economic and political questions. Should public policy aim to reduce inequality, and if so by what means? Does concentrated wealth at the top of the income spectrum generate asset bubbles, or vice versa? Could raising taxes or interest rates ward off financial meltdowns?

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/22/income-inequality-america_n_772687.html

30 years of declining/stagnating wages. What did they thing was going to happen?

[Mimosa]

1. The candidates don't address this issue, do they? n/t

[BuelahWitch]

2. No, except when they blame US for our economic situations

We didn't work hard enough, weren't ambitious enough, blah, blah, blah.

[boston bean]

5. We didn't save enough, we spent too much... etc etc etc

[laughingliberal]

7. That's their story and they're sticking to it. nt

[Eryemil]

3. Income inequality in the US is now worse than many 3rd world countries. Something's gotta give.

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. It's simple. When money moves to the top there is......

less for everyone else to spend. Spending is what drives the economy and financial institutions had to come up with more creative ways to convince people that they had money to spend. Credit cards were the beginning and when that maxed out they moved on to home equity loans. Remember all the commercials telling you that it was crazy to sit on that equity money. Buy that car, add an addition to your house, etc., etc.. They were looking out for their own wealth rather than insuring that workers got a real wage. The well has run dry and that is why we are where we are. I saw this a long time ago and was amazed at how they kept coming up with new schemes to convince people that they had money they didn't.

[Klukie]

6. Kick and Rec

I think this article sums it up except that it fails to discuss the need for non college educated type jobs in this country. It talks about the need to push for education, yet I think that what our leaders fail to recognize is that a good bulk of our people have neither the ability or will to go to college and become middle management. This needs to be addressed in this whole discussion, otherwise we are leaving out a whole faction of society when planning for our nations future. Part of balancing inequality is realizing that people are not all equal in their talents and abilities.

[Panaconda]

8. K&R