BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Fears by the wealthy rulers of the United States about the growing income gap between the rich and poor during the economic upturn of the 1990s has created an even more explosive social situation when the "boom" ends and the economy slides into a deep downturn were recently summed up by Albert Hunt in a Wall Street Journal opinion column.
"Over the past two decades, income in the world's richest countries has soared while income in the poorest nations has plummeted," he wrote in a piece published April 20. The percentage of income taken in by the richest 20 percent of the world's population increased from 76.3 percent of the total in 1980 to 85.9 percent in 1997 according to a United Nations study. At the same time the percentage of the total income of the poorest 20 percent went down from 1.7 percent in 1980 to 1.1 percent in 1997.
Hunt cited a Brookings Institute official who called the gap between rich and poor people in the United States a "startling increase." Today, the top 1 percent of the population holds 40 percent of the country's wealth—more than double the percentage of just 25 years ago. The wealthiest 20 percent rake in almost 20 times what wage workers in the bottom 20 percent make; this margin has doubled over the past two decades.
"The good news is this gap has leveled off over the past five years," states Hunt. "The bad news, notes Frank Levy, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is that with the strongest economy in memory, and tight labor markets, 'you would expect inequality to get better; it has not.'"
Today CEOs of major companies are making about 400-fold more than their average workers. According to Business Week, the CEOs of the largest 350 companies had an average total compensation of $12.4 million last year, up from less than $2 million at the start of the decade. "If the current $5.15-an-hour minimum wage had risen comparably, it'd be about $24 an hour," notes Hunt.
Hunt cites Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan warning that the widening income gap potentially poses "a major threat to our security," that is the "security" of the capitalist rulers who've increased their wealth and well-being at the expense of the vast majority of workers and farmers.
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