|
The Wealth Gap: A Second Gilded Age?
The economic boom of the 1990s was highly uneven. Most people’s wages remained flat or failed to recover the ground lost since the 1970s. The United States is now the most unequal society in the industrialized world.
Source: Edward N. Wolff, "Recent Trends in Wealth Ownership, 1983-1998," Levy Institute Working Paper No. 300, Table 3. (Levy Economics Institute: April, 2000)
Our state governments are in serious financial trouble after a decade of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Vital public services are at risk.
Our democracy has been weakened because of the power of accumulated wealth. Sometimes our government seems most concerned with writing rules and administering regulations to serve the interests of its paying patrons.
This concentration of political power directly and indirectly undermines equality of opportunity in America. Too much economic inequality also undermines economic stability and growth, threatening prosperity for all.
As there is greater distance between haves and have-nots, we behave more like people in an apartheid society. For example, more people than ever are living in “gated communities" with entrances patrolled by armed guards. Is this the kind of nation we want to become?
Since it was enacted in 1916, the estate tax has helped to limit the concentration of wealth, making it easier for Americans to educate themselves, innovate, build new businesses, and prosper.
Repealing the estate tax will reverse that progress. We should strengthen the estate tax, not eliminate it.
Source: Edward N. Wolff, "Recent Trends in Wealth Ownership, 1983-1998," Levy Institute Working Paper No. 300, Table 3. (Levy Economics Institute: April, 2000)
|
|
|
