Income inequality has captured America’s economic debate.
President Donald Trump, elected with the votes of discontented blue-collar workers, slaps tariffs on allies and adversaries alike in the name of restoring yesterday’s middle-class manufacturing jobs. His 2020 Democratic challengers demand an array of federal initiatives, including higher minimum wages, tax hikes on the rich and reshuffling the balance of power between business and labor.
Indeed, the rising gap between the rich and everyone else has fueled unrest across the world, from Europe’s ongoing Brexit crisis to this year’s elections in India. A sharp reduction in extreme poverty globally has not diminished the sense of loss among middle- and working-class citizens of countries with advanced economies.
Why has this happened? And why has it grown so pronounced in the United States? Here are five causes identified by scholars of the subject: CONT.
John Harwood, CNBC