Inequality in the US has been getting worse for decades, and the message becomes more powerful when you give it a dollar value.
In a comprehensive article from Time magazine we learn that if the level of inequality from the mid-70s had not changed, today the average household would be $297K better off. Also, if inequality had not risen, the median wage earner would be earning double what they are today.
This is the result of, aside from capitalism naturally causing the rich to get richer, a dramatic lowering of tax rates for high earners. That is what changed, and more inequality is the result.
Unfortunately many voters merely need to hear the words “tax cut” without questioning how it would affect them personally.
Time says:
An America with an economy $2 trillion smaller and a workforce $2.5 trillion a year poorer than they otherwise would be had inequality held constant since 1975. This is an America in which 47 percent of renters are cost burdened, in which 40 percent of households can’t cover a $400 emergency expense, in which half of Americans over age 55 have no retirement savings at all. This is an America in which 28 million have no health insurance, and in which 44 million underinsured Americans can’t afford the deductibles or copays to use the insurance they have.
