Income Inequality in America: Fact and Fiction
The presence of—and, in some countries, increase in—household income inequality has become a flash point in public policy and political discussion.
For Winston Churchill, such inequality was an unavoidable part of economic life in capitalist societies. “The main vice of capitalism,” remarked the British Prime Minister, “is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery.”
The presence of—and, in some countries, increase in—household income inequality has become a flash point in public policy and political discussion.
For Winston Churchill, such inequality was an unavoidable part of economic life in capitalist societies. “The main vice of capitalism,” remarked the British Prime Minister, “is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery.”
But for President Barack Obama, income equality is not only a pressing problem, it is "the defining challenge of our time." Against this backdrop, e21 brought together leading economists to provide a primer on ways to think about income inequality.
Read the full report here.
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