Over the last 30 years, wealth in the United States has been steadily concentrating in the upper economic echelons. Whereas the top 1 percent used to control a little over 30 percent of the wealth, they now control 40 percent. It’s a trend that was for decades brushed under the rug but is now on the tops of minds and at the tips of tongues.
Since too much inequality can foment revolt and instability, the CIA regularly updates statistics on income distribution for countries around the world, including the U.S. Between 1997 and 2007, inequality in the U.S. grew by almost 10 percent, making it more unequal than Russia, infamous for its powerful oligarchs. The U.S. is not faring well historically, either. Even the Roman Empire, a society built on conquest and slave labor, had a more equitable income distribution.
Read the rest here.
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Over at Groping the Elephant, Doug B has been blasting away at current politics in a series of hard-hitting, fact-based posts to be found here, here, here, here, here, and here. His posts are beautiful to behold because Doug is -- so far as I can tell -- telling the truth.
Telling the truth. What a novel idea!
And these days, it seems increasingly up to bloggers to do that, because so few others are. I wish that was an exaggeration, but so far as I can see, it is not.
Moreover, as Doug points out, "...there is no substantial liberal voice in D.C. looking out for the interests of the poorest and most vulnerable Americans. There is no political left anymore, only a right and far-right." I don't think you will hear that said too often in the mainstream media, but it seems about right.
