Economy
Related: About this forumRobert Reich" Majority of Americans have less than $1000 in savings and checking combined.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/36673-the-jaw-dropping-realities-of-our-widening-economic-divideChuck Collins from the Institute for Policy Studies has new data showing the majority of Americans now have less than $1,000 in their savings and checking accounts combined. If they slip on the sidewalk or have a problem with their car, they can be left penniless.
On the other side of the widening economic divide is an equally jaw-dropping reality: The 400 wealthiest Americans now own more wealth than the entire GDP of India, a nation of nearly 1.3 billion people.
The problem isnt inequality per se. Its the consequences of the degree of inequality: a shrinking middle class thats increasingly frustrated and angry, a politics that as a result has become polarized and shrill, fewer opportunities for the poor to ascend into the middle class, and a democracy thats overrun with money from the wealthy. The trend is unsustainable, politically and economically.
bobGandolf
(871 posts)Not sure about unsustainable. The middle class thats increasingly frustrated, and angry, is fueled by republican rhetoric. The disrespectful actions have been modeled by republican politicians for 7+ years. Throw Trump out there with his new style campaign fanning the flames of the many frustrated citizens, and this is what you get.
Petrushka
(3,709 posts). . . for not making paid speeches on Wall Street.
Getting rid of the "Middle Class" and the economic and political power they have should make society more stable. Along the lines of a feudal society. Very little change in class or status. I just don't think it's a society most of us here want any part of.
Conservatives have been after the middle class since the 70's, if not for the last millennium. Unfortunately a number of Democrats have bought in as well.