Top 1%

Income inequality has reached insane levels in the U.S., and the Republicans seem intent on widening that gap as much as possible.  It's not the gap between college grads and non-college grads that's grown so much, it's the gap between the top 1% (the top 0.01% actually) and the rest of us.

The wealthy have been waging class warfare on the rest of us since Reagan, and they've been winning.  So, what should be done about it?  Get a rope? 

From Paul Krugman's blog:

Inequality Trends In One Picture



Just an addendum on the role of the top 1 percent versus the college-noncollege differential. Here, from the CBO report, are the changes, in percentage points, of the shares of income going to three groups. The top quintile excluding the top 1 percent – which is basically the abode of the well-educated who aren’t among the very lucky few – has only kept pace with the overall growth in incomes. Just about all of the redistribution has taken place from the bottom 80 to the top 1 (and we know that most of that has actually gone to the top 0.1).

 
 
It’s a tiny minority, not a broad class of well-educated Americans, who have been winning here.



Original.