From 1993 to
2010, the incomes of the richest 1 percent of Americans grew 58 percent while
the rest had a 6.4 percent increase. In
2010, the first year of an economic recovery, the top 1 percent of Americans
captured 93% of the income gains. Beyond the danger to the American republics
in there being an economic elite so far removed from the vast majority of the
population is the question of whether the trend is baleful, economically
speaking. It is not clear that even such an income gain being snagged by so few
registered in the minds of the general populous as a problem. The key to any
concern would seem to be whether opportunity for the many is compromised as a
result of extreme economic inequality.
The full essay is at "Economic Inequality."
Source:
Eduardo Porter,
“Inequality Undermines Democracy,” The
New York Times, March 21, 2012.