Thursday, November 18, 2010

Should the top 1% own most of the U.S.?


Oops, they already do.

That's according to "A Hedge Fund Republic," a great column today by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. It's about income inequality in this country. Kristof had to apologize to banana republics for comparing them with the United States. Apparently, banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana are more equal than the United States. Kristof writes
...inequality in the United States has soared to levels comparable to those in Argentina six decades ago — with 1 percent controlling 24 percent of American income in 2007.

Here's another stunning statistic from our friends at the Economic Policy Institute: The top 1 percent of Americans owns 34 percent of America’s private net worth. 

Oh, and did we mention that 50 million Americans live in hunger?