Is the gap between the rich and poor increasing or decreasing in the U.S.?

Question

Why?

Answer 1

The gap between the rich and poor is widening in every capitalist country including China! Thus, this is not a unique US situation it is global phenomenon

Answer 2

It's likely that the gap is increasing but I suppose it depends on how you define poor and rich. If you're saying "top 10% are rich and bottom 10% are poor" then the difference (whether you're looking at income or wealth) is likely getting larger but that's partly because you can only go so low but there's no limit on how high you can go.

I would think that it would be more interesting to compare the growth rate of the bottom 10% of incomes and the top 10% for a real comparison. I imagine that the rate of increase is fairly comparable, especially if you eliminate the portion that is non-working.

Don't really care why so I won't try to answer that part -)

Answer 3

This question overlooks one pertinent fact: people are not static. They are dynamic. Many classified as "poor" this year are unlikely to remain in that economic group for more than a few years. Many classified as "rich" this year will likely be in a lower economic group is a few years.

A newly minted college grad taking their first job might well fall into the "poor" classification. Will they still be there in 5 years? Not likely - experience in their field will result in an increase in income.

A person in the upper income bracket who retires will fall into a lower income bracket after retirement.

People move in and out of different income levels during their lives. Yes, there are some unfortunates who will start at the bottom and remain there all their lives, just as there are some fortunates who start at the top and remain there. For the majority, though, its movement from income level to income level and it goes both ways, up and down.

Answer 4

Yes. According to

http://www.demos.org/inequality/numbers.cfm,

"The top one percent of households received 21.8 percent of all pre-tax income in 2005, more than double what that figure was in the 1970s. (The top one percent's share of total income bottomed out at 8.9 percent in 1976.)"

The figures I have seen for wealth is even more amazing, if you believe thier site, and I have seen comparable numbers elsewhere:

"The richest one percent of U.S. households now owns 34.3 percent of the nation's private wealth, more than the combined wealth of the bottom 90 percent."

The increase in inequality is probably due to a lot of things. The loss in finished goods retail industry and the millions of manufacturing jobs with the rise of trade probably has a lot to do with it. Tax cuts made it much worse, as did the treatment of capital. Basically extending the Reagan revolution made it much worse if not caused most of it. The cuts on welfare and other programs did a lot.

Answer 5

the gap is definitely increasing, and the population that counts as poor is growing in leaps and bounds. The middle class has been taxed out of existence.

Answer 6

yes, it is increasing because the U.S sent and sends work to other countries that used to be done here !! it takes away from the middle class!!