Global Trends and Transformations in Culture, Business, and Technology, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 8

The Inequality, the Wealth Concentration, and the Super-rich

The Rise of Economic Inequality in America

For most of the 20th century, inequality in the United States was flat or falling [1]. After the Second World War between 1947 and the early 1970s, all income groups, particularly the poor, benefited from the national economic growth and experienced growth in real annual income [2]. During this period, government policies were linking productivity to workers’ compensation, full employment was a priority, unions were strong, and fiscal policies were equitable [2]. As a result, for much of the period between the 1950s and 1970s, inequality was either stable or declining. Things changed since the late 1970s when economic inequality started ...