Looking at a study published in early March of this year (using data from 2010) by Emmanual Saez, E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and Director, Center for Equitable Growth, at the University of California, Berkeley, it’s clear that income inequality is real (and getting worse).
As Harold Meyerson at the Washington Post puts it:
…93 percent of income growth went to the wealthiest 1 percent of American households, while everyone else divvied up the 7 percent that was left over. Put another way: The most fundamental characteristic of the U.S. economy today is the divide between the 1 percent and the 99 percent.
And while some of us may be able to identify with the 1%, they certainly don’t identify with us.