Americans didn't magically suffer a collective collapse in self-discipline over the last four decades. So what changed? The economy, stupid.
More and more working-age men in the United States aren’t working at all. The number of nonworking white men grew from about 8 percent in 1960 to 17 percent in 2014. The numbers look still worse among black men: In 1960, 19 percent of black men were not working; in 2014, that number had grown to 35 percent of black men. That includes men who are incarcerated as well those who can’t find jobs.
The disparities in wealth that we term “income inequality” are no accident, and they can’t be fixed by fiddling at the edges of our current economic system. These disparities happened by design.
Child care costs constitute a large portion of the income families need in order to achieve a modest yet adequate standard of living—and are particularly onerous for workers paid the minimum wage.
In 2013, for the first time, over half of public school students were low-income—and this poverty growth spurt shows little sign of abating.
African-Americans are disproportionately likely to be poor, they are only a quarter of Americans living in poverty; whites make up about 41% of the poor. Those white Americans who don't want to help the poor because they'd be helping people of another race are actually screwing over white people big time.The wealth gap between /white and African-American families tripled between 1980 and 2009.
The lack of wage growth is one reason why many consumers feel that the broader economic recovery hasn’t reached their wallets. The problem has divided academics and fueled political debate on Capitol Hill and across the country, turning an increase in the minimum wage, for example, into a central issue in the midterm elections.
Nurses, philosophers, and UK trade unions have, over the past 12 months, all shared some fascinating ideas on how we can make our societies more equal — and much better — places to live.
Wealth Inequality in America. Strike: Fast Food Workers Speak Out. The Onion Warns Miley Cyrus May Be Depleted. Walmart Workers Announce Labor Day Deadline. John L. Lewis With Atlanta Fast Food Strikers. Kevin Spacey: Give Viewers Control.
Growing income inequality—approaching now obscene levels—is not simply a ‘moral outrage’. It not only represents a gross violation of historically held American values or reasonable equality for all. It is a condition that has served, and continues to serve, as a major cause of the lack of sustained economic recovery in the US now for five years—as well as a major factor in explaining why the US continues today to drift toward another ‘double dip’ recession.
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