Disturbing truths about the wealth gap in America have surfaced in recent months. Our nation is breaking in two. Yet downtrodden Americans are hoping for a fairy-tale ending to their misery, instead of demanding the progressive measures that would empower them.
Collapse of the Middle Class
For every $100 owned by a middle-class household in 2001, that household had just $72in 2013.
Half of us are barely surviving, and it may be more than half. A J.P. Morgan study concluded that “the bottom 80% of households by income lack sufficient savings to cover the type of volatility observed in income and spending.”
More Rich, More Poor, Less Empathy
Nearly two-thirds of American families were considered middle class in 1970. Today it’s halfor less. The rest of us have gone up or down, mostly down.
Stanford researchers have concluded, “It is increasingly unlikely that high-income families interact with middle- and low-income families, eroding some of the social empathy that might lead to support for broader public investment in social programs to help the poor and middle class.”