Some 60 percent of Americans believe that government action is
necessary to narrow the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor. The
response to a question in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll comes as
statistics show that income disparity is at levels not seen since the Great
Depression.
The poll also found that 61 percent felt that the gap between the
rich and poor was greater than in the past. While most Republicans oppose
government action to redress the disparity, Democrats and independents support
such action, the Post reported. The Lookout
Both high- and low-income Americans agree on the existence of the
gap, but support for government action mostly comes from those with lower
income. Some 75 percent of those earning less than $20,000 a year support
government action. News Max Almost three-quarters of Occupy Wall Street supporters believe that
the gap between wealthy and non-wealthy Americans is larger than it's been
historically, and almost eight in 10 want the federal government to pursue
policies to rectify the situation. Washington Post The growing income gap between the country's wealthiest and
lowest-earning citizens hasn't escaped international notice. Earlier this month,
the United Nations' Human Development Report ranked the U.S. as the fourth best
country to live in, based on an analysis of health, education, economic growth
and human rights. But, when the scale was adjusted to account for income
inequality, that ranking fell to 23. International Business
Times
As of 2006, the United States had one of the highest levels of income
inequality, as measured through the Gini index, among high income countries,
comparable to that of some developing countries. U.S. Department of Commerce
CBO study in Oct. 26, 2011 found that the top 1% of American gained
the most wealth (about 275%) in the period between 1979 and 2007, and all lower
quintiles lost their share of national income. U.S. Congressional Budget
Office In 2009, nearly 6.5 million children lived in households with incomes
below 50 percent of the poverty threshold which translates to extreme poverty.
The South accounted for nearly half of the nation's increase in extreme poverty.
Brookings Institute The income gap between Americans with the highest incomes and those
with lower incomes has been at the core of the Occupy Wall Street movement that
started in New York on September 17. Protesters have criticized what they have
characterized as the greed of the nation's wealthiest people.
Occupywallstreet.org
AHT/SM/KK
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