American Inequality

From Bill Moyers Journal, April 2, 2010

In his closing essay for the April 2, 2010 JOURNAL, Bill Moyers references several works on inequality in America. Among these is THE SPIRIT LEVEL: WHY GREATER EQUALITY MAKES SOCIETIES STRONGER by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, who together have spent more than 50 years studying how inequality affects the health of a population.

Bill Moyers talked to them about their work.

RICHARD WILKINSON: Well, what we've discovered is health is just one of many issues which are worse in more unequal societies, including violence or teenage births and all sorts of other problems. These are not just a little bit worse in more unequal societies, but are much worse.

Also among their findings:
- The most unequal countries have more homicide, more obesity, more mental illness, more teen pregnancy, more high-school dropouts, and more people in prison.
- The more equal the society, the longer its people live.
- The United States has the greatest inequality of income of any developed country except Singapore.

>Read the complete interview

Ameican Equality and Inequality

The authors of THE SPIRIT LEVEL are not the first to note the powerful ramifications the loss of equality has had on American society and self-image. In THE AMERICAN DREAM VS. THE GOSPEL OF WEALTH, the economist Norton Garfinkle writes that Abraham Lincoln believed this country's defining characteristic was economic opportunity, that through hard work, over the course of a lifetime, every American — including freed slaves — could achieve a decent standard of living.

In Garfinkle's words, "America was the first nation on earth to offer this opportunity of economic advancement to all, even to the humblest beginner, and this was what made the nation unique and worth preserving. Ultimately, it was the largest reason for Lincoln's willingness to fight the Civil War."

Read more from THE AMERICAN DREAM VS. THE GOSPEL OF WEALTH

The BBC reported startling economic inequality figures in a 2008 documentary: the top 200 wealthiest people in the world control more wealth than the bottom 4 billion. But what is more striking to many is a close look at the economic inequality in the homeland of the "American Dream." The United States is one of the most economically stratified societies in the western world. As THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reported, a 2008 study found that the top .01% — or 14,000 American families — hold 22.2% of wealth. The bottom 90%, or over 133 million families, control just 4% of the nation's wealth.

Additional studies narrow the focus. This from the Pew Foundation and THE NEW YORK TIMES: "The chance that children of the poor or middle class will climb up the income ladder, has not changed significantly over the last three decades." This from THE ECONOMIST'S special report, "Inequality in America:" "The fruits of productivity gains have been skewed towards the highest earners, and towards companies, whose profits have reached record levels as a share of GDP."

More: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/profile4.html

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America's corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they're privatizing democracy. All the benefits - the tax cuts, policies and rewards flow in one direction: up.

~ Bill Moyers