Bernard Wasow
2008-07-17 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

The United States is the richest country on earth; the income of the average American household substantially exceeds that of the average household anywhere else. And household wealth, too, is huge by global standards.

But these statistics mask a troubling truth.

For three decades, while household income and wealth may have been increasing, it was mostly the wealthiest Americans who benefited from the nation’s economic gains.

For those at the top of the income ladder, the 1980s and especially the 1990s were a period of rapid income and wealth growth. But for those in the middle class and for the poor, it was a period of stagnation, marked by very modest income gains.

Largely as a result, families with the highest income and wealth in the United States are far better off than their counterparts in other countries or than the average family in the United States.

In contrast, the poor in the United States have slightly less purchasing power than the poor in almost every other advanced economy.

The gaps between the rich and the middle class and between the rich and the poor are greatest in the United States.

Read more at tcf.org