The Wealth Gap in America Is Growing, Too

In my first blog I talked about inequality in poor countries due to globalization. Inequality is also quite prevalent, however, in the United States. According to government records income inequality reached its highest point in a hundred years. These records state that the top 10% wealthiest people in the nation held over half the total income. 

Wealth inequality has also been rising in the US. The difference between income and wealth is fairly subtle, but important. Income has to do with an individuals earnings, all the money someone has made, your salary and money you've made selling stocks for instance. Wealth is the value of your assets: savings, your home, unsold stocks, etc., and taking away from this total your debt. According to a study done at UC Berkeley, the wealth inequality in the United States is equal to that of the early 1900s. The largest gainers of this increase in inequality have been the wealthiest 0.1 and 0.01 percent.

Since the 1970s wealth inequality has been growing steadily. Multiple factors, including technological advancements and globalization have caused worker wages to go up. However, these increase in efficiency have allowed executive earnings to skyrocket. Wealth inequality generally grows more slowly than income inequality, but this is mostly true for households. When observing the very rich, those with more than $20-100 million in wealth have experienced very large increases in wealth inequality, with those richer feeling more of an impact. Economists are saying that the "middle rich" are no longer gaining as much money, while the ultra rich are having very large gains. This decrease in the middle rich has allowed for a greater gap between the bottom and the top of the countries earners.