The flipside of all this, of course, is that theres a smaller share of the pie left for everyone else. The OECD finds that relative poverty rate in the United States is 17.4 percent, the fifth-highest among member countries. And while the wealthy may have gained back their recession losses, the poorest have not: The number of Americans reporting instances of not being able to afford enough food for their families has risen by 50 percent since the start of the crisis. These data raise the question: What share of income should the top 1 percent be taking in? Conventional economic wisdom holds that we should just leave the 1 percent be, since any form of redistribution would put a damper on economic growth. But as the IMF recently found, this isnt the case. Redistribution can actually provide a net benefit to growth by offsetting the harmful effects of inequality. Finally, you have to wonder: In the absence of any leadership from national politicians, just how large will the 1 percents share of the pie grow?
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 17:14:05 +0000
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