WASHINGTON -- The numbers are shocking -- assuming that we still have the capacity for shock -- and they will form the backdrop for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
The president will declare himself a foe of “income inequality,” with good reason: As a nation, we have climbed out of the deep hole of the Great Recession, but we have not done so as a whole people.
For the first time since precise recordkeeping began a century ago, 10 percent of Americans take in more than half the country’s income.
In the last 40 years, the income of the top 1 percent of Americans has quadrupled, while incomes for everyone else have stagnated.
Billionaires such as the Koch brothers and Michael Bloomberg, empowered by the Supreme Court, spend fortunes to influence politics, just as J.P. Morgan and California railroad magnates once did.
The biggest of the Big Banks are bigger than they were when we bailed them out over the financial crisis.
Study after study shows that we are in the midst of a new Gilded Age, in which a yawning, gold-plated gap between the richest and the rest of us risks collapsing the American ideal of fair play and democracy itself.
The same is true in the world at large. According to an Oxfam study, 1 percent of the planet’s population now controls half the planet’s wealth.
At this week's World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland, where disparate incomes will be a topic of earnest discussion, the attendees include at least 80 billionaires, according to Bloomberg News.
At the movies, “The Wolf of Wall Street” has attracted crowds and good critical notices for its dark, yet in some ways agnostic, ode to greed.
But whatever we think of the virtues of capitalism or the acquisitive instincts of man, we can’t afford for the United States to deteriorate into the top-heavy profile of a developing nation. The Founding Fathers would be dismayed at the current concentration of clout. So, too, should serious minds on all sides: liberals who fear rampant private privilege, conservatives who fear centralized power.
The questions the president will ask, implicitly or explicitly, are these: Why have we come to this? What can we do about it as a nation?
For if this is a new Gilded Age, where are the signs of a new Progressive Era -- a wide-ranging reform movement, like the one long ago?
In a series of pieces from Jan. 23 to Jan. 28, when the president delivers his State of the Union, The Huffington Post will look at the problem from several angles and for signs of new solutions. Topics include:
- How fast-food workers came to symbolize the plight of all low-wage workers, and new demands (which the president will amplify) for a long-overdue increase in the federal minimum wage.
The growing influence of billionaires in the political trenches, and new efforts to control their reach. The search for a new generation of muckrakers, like the investigative journalists a century ago, who set the agenda of Progressive Era reform. The federal and state courts and judges who are challenging the pro-corporate jurisprudence of the Roberts Supreme Court. How banks, bigger and bolder than ever, are blowing past weak regulation to load college students with crushing debt. The search, just beginning, for organizations and voices to carry a new progressive message, the way reformers and a fiercely ambitious leader named Theodore Roosevelt once did.President Obama has cited several political role models, including Ronald Reagan. He might now want to look at TR, a Republican.
“He invented in some ways the modern presidency,” historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told one interviewer recently. Her latest bestseller, The Bully Pulpit, describes TR’s career as a reformer. “He said he was a steward of the people with a responsibility to use government to ameliorate social conditions,” she said.
It is easier to describe the Second Gilded Age than to explain how it arose.
Economist and former Obama administration official Jared Bernstein notes several factors -- from globalization, which puts downward pressure on wages by shipping jobs overseas or importing cheap labor here; to technology’s demand for “skill-based” workers, which is eliminating formerly well-paying manufacturing jobs; the “financialization” of the economy, which gives ever-increasing advantage to those who control and manage money, credit, insurance and real estate; continued levels of high unemployment and underemployment, which create a “slack” labor market; and the decline of institutional protections such as labor unions and government wage guarantees.
“The last big factor is what I call ‘political economy,’” Bernstein said. “That means what the political system does or doesn’t do: court rulings, gridlock in Washington, what we do on stimulative spending.
“None of that is helping right now.”
Next Tuesday, the president will unveil his latest ideas on how “political economy” can bridge the income gap that has only widened on his watch.
It’s not clear which Americans will be listening, but the topic is an urgent one for us all -- all 100 percent.
This article is part of a weeklong series examining income inequality in America in advance of President Obama's State of the Union address. Read more here.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
It's Another Trump-Biden Showdown — And We Need Your Help
The Future Of Democracy Is At Stake
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Your Loyalty Means The World To Us
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
The 2024 election is heating up, and women's rights, health care, voting rights, and the very future of democracy are all at stake. Donald Trump will face Joe Biden in the most consequential vote of our time. And HuffPost will be there, covering every twist and turn. America's future hangs in the balance. Would you consider contributing to support our journalism and keep it free for all during this critical season?
HuffPost believes news should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. We rely on readers like you to help fund our work. Any contribution you can make — even as little as $2 — goes directly toward supporting the impactful journalism that we will continue to produce this year. Thank you for being part of our story.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
It's official: Donald Trump will face Joe Biden this fall in the presidential election. As we face the most consequential presidential election of our time, HuffPost is committed to bringing you up-to-date, accurate news about the 2024 race. While other outlets have retreated behind paywalls, you can trust our news will stay free.
But we can't do it without your help. Reader funding is one of the key ways we support our newsroom. Would you consider making a donation to help fund our news during this critical time? Your contributions are vital to supporting a free press.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our journalism free and accessible to all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.
Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.
Support HuffPostAlready contributed? Log in to hide these messages.