December 12, 2013
We noted in 2010 that the American Dream had moved abroad … since social mobility between generations is dramatically lower in the U.S. than in many other developed countries.
Image:US Flag (Wikimedia Commons)
We reported last year that both conservatives and liberals are worried about the collapse of social mobility in America.
Income inequality has increased more under Obama than under Bush. Inequality in America today is worse than it was in Gilded Age America, modern Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen, many banana republics in Latin America, and worse than experienced by slaves in 1774 colonial America. It is twice as bad as in ancient Rome – which was built on slave labor. Background here and here.
As Bloomberg reports, the American people know what’s going on:
The widening gap between rich and poor is eroding faith in the American dream.
By almost two to one — 64 percent to 33 percent — Americans say the U.S. no longer offers everyone an equal chance to get ahead, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. And some say the government isn’t doing much to help.
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The lack of faith is especially pronounced among those making less than $50,000 a year: By a 73 percent to 24 percent margin, they say the economy is unfair. Even 60 percent of those whose annual income is $100,000 or more bemoan the absence of a fair deal while 39 percent say everyone has an equal shot to advance.
In recent weeks, public attention to the rich-poor gap has mounted.
As the new Bloomberg poll shows, Americans are split on whether or not the government should do more to reduce inequality.
But the deeper issue is that bad government policy is largely responsible for soaring inequality.
In other words – whether you are for redistribution of wealth or against it – we should all be for stopping destructive government policies which are stealing from the lower and middle classes and throwing money at the super-rich.
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