We're in a Recession Because the Rich Are Raking in an Absurd Portion of the Wealth
By Robert Reich, The Nation
Posted on July 7, 2010, Printed on July 12, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/147469/
Wall Street's banditry was the proximate cause of the Great Recession, nrabroad
its underlying cause. Even if the Street is better controlled in the future (and I have my doubts), the structural reason for the Great Recession still haunts America. That reason is America's surging inequality.
Consider: in 1928 the richest 1 percent of Americans received 23.9 percent of the nation's trabroad
al income. After that, the share going to the richest 1 percent steadily declined. New Deal reforms, followed by World War II, the GI Bill and the Great Society expanded the circle of prosperity. By the late 1970s the top 1 percent raked in only 8 to 9 percent of America's trabroad
al annual income. But after that, inequality began to widen again, and income reconcentrated at the top. By 2007 the richest 1 percent were back to where they were in 1928