Why inequality in America is even worse than you thought

There has been no shortage of headlines this week about the growing income and wealth inequality in the United States. A new study from the Congressional Budget Office, for example, found that income of the top 1 percent of households increased by 275 percent in the 30-year period ending in 2007. American households at the bottom and in the middle, meanwhile, saw income growth of just 18 to 40 percent over the same period

But less attention has been paid to the fact that not only are the numbers bad in America, they’re particularly bad when compared to other developed nations.

A new report (.pdf) by the Bertelsmann Foundation drives this point home. The German think tank used a set of policy analyses to create a Social Justice Index of 31 developed nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The United States came in a dismal 27th in the rankings. Here, for example, is a graph of one of the metrics, child poverty, in which the U.S. ranked fourth-to-last

Daniel Schraad-Tischler, who authored the study for Bertelsmann, explained to me how the Social Justice Index works and why the U.S. ranks so low. The U.S. ranks 27 out of 31 in your Social Justice Index, clustered around countries like Turkey and Slovakia. If we have the biggest economy in the world, why are we so low in this index?

keep reading at: http://www.salon.com/2011/10/29/why_inequality_in_america_is_even_worse_than_you_thought/

Everybody on DU knows the answer to that.

It starts with an "R"

Until they are held accountable instead being acceptable as the lesser of two evils, nothing will change. Progressives won't change the Rs but can change the Ds.

As in "Reagan." Every office holder since then has continued the assault with equal fervor, though, so looking to the "D"'s isn't it either.

Really, we need a new system. Lots of people are beginning to figure it out.

There is no "going back" to the "perfect time" when capitalism wasn't predatory...because that never happened.

You are so right there. We were foolish and believed the lies of the psychopaths who control the Capitalist ponzi scheme we're stuck in.