Today, it’s time for a two-fer. I follow political cartoons during the week and try to choose the one that’s not too partisan. I lean towards one that speaks more about finance or the economy. But this week, I can’t choose between the final two. The gap between rich and poor is growing. It’s more and more clear we are losing our middle class. I’m not suggesting a revolution is around the corner, only that when people have nothing left to lose, the results can be tragic. I’ve been paying attention to the economy for over 30 years, and I don’t recall such an awful jobless recovery.
Borrowing from the Pareto principle, it follows that 20% of the population will control 80% of the wealth but I think we are far past that. A very small percentage of the population is controlling humongous amounts of wealth. Something is going to give and as you do note, it won’t be pleasant š
Joe,
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I would say that its not entirely clear that we are losing our middle class. Its true that real median income has declined over the past 30 years, but education, life expectancies, and other metrics have improved. So, I think when we are taking a look at the big picture its important to take blanket assertions such as “the rich are getting richer”, etc. with a grain of salt.
Thanks,
James
Thank you for the comment, James. I know that statistics are not a simple matter. What I see from multiple sources are numbers that show the top 1% seeing income and wealth increases that are far greater than what the bottom 99% have seen. It follows that the concentration of wealth continues to move to this group. I don’t have any solution to propose, just my observations.