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TOPIC A Is the level of economic inequality in the U.S. excessive? |
BACKGROUND:
Unbottled Gini. The Economist, January 20, 2011.
Inequality is rising. Does it matter, and if so why? (Consider also this piece in same issue.)
Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (pdf). Dept. of Economics, University of California, July 17, 2010.
The labor market has created more inequality over the
last thirty years, with top earners capturing a large fraction of
macroeconomic productivity gains. Is this efficient and acceptable?
The Inequality Conundrum (pdf). New York Times Magazine, June 10, 2007.
Inequality is a hot topic, but how much inequality is too much inequality?
SOME DATA:
Trends in the Distribution of Household Income 1979-2007 (pdf). Congressional Budget Office, October 2011.
Oodles of charts and graphs.
CHART: Distribution of Family Income - Countries Compared. CIA World Factbook.
Chart showing the Gini index, which measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country for several dozen countries.
CHARTS: Public Opinion on Inequality. Center for American Progress, November 14, 2011.
With Occupy Wall Street putting inequality into the national economic conversation, pollsters have started asking questions about it.
ON THE CRITICAL SUBJECT OF MOBILITY:
Economic Mobility of Families Across Generations (pdf). Brookings Institution, 2008.
Inequality and mobility are related aspects of the same issue. This piece offers summary findings of a Brookings/Pew project addressing these questions: (1) Do children in America advance beyond their parents in terms
of family income? (2) Do children from
different family backgrounds have
an equal shot at rising in society?
HAVE A GANDER:
The United States of Inequality. Slate, September 2010.
Navigation page for Slate's impressive 10-part series weighing possible causes of rising income inequality. Part 10 is more polemical, and so it is included as a link below on the YES side. The entire series can be downloaded as a single pdf file.
YES:
Does Inequality Matter? Slate, December 5, 2011.
The remarkable achievement of the Occupy Wall Street movement has been to make continuing silence about inequality politically unacceptable.
The Rich Do Get Richer. Slate, June 24, 2003.
How much economic mobility is there, anyway?
Why We Can't Ignore Growing Income Inequality. Slate, September 16, 2010.
Argues that although it's hard to say what the ideal distribution of income in society might be, we've been headed in the wrong direction for far too long.
Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else More Than Tripled In Last Three Decades, New Data Shows. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBBP), June 15, 2010.
NO:
The Income-Inequality Myth. National Review Online, January 10, 2012.
Reports of skyrocketing incomes for the wealthy and stagnating wages for the rest are unfounded.
An Upside to Inequality? Heritage Foundation, June 30, 2007.
Argues that an economy that rewards hard work generates inequality - but is fair.
Incomes and Inequality: What the Numbers Don’t Tell Us. The New York Times, January 25, 2007.
An economist argues that inequality as a major and chronic American problem has been overstated.
Thinking Clearly About Economic Inequality (pdf). Cato Institute, July 14, 2009.
Is American
income
inequality really
an existential
threat to the
democratic values
at the heart of our political culture?
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