ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606240043
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DESPITE GENERAL good times in a growing economy, the gap between rich and poor in America continues to widen. The news was confirmed again this week in a Census Bureau report - and while the gap is yawning, Americans shouldn't be.
According to the Census study, the bottom fifth of wage earners have seen their inflation-adjusted income rise on average only 8 percent since 1968. Meantime, the top fifth have seen their income soar by 44 percent. And the top 5 percent of incomes rose by 60 percent.
The reasons for the growing income gap aren't especially mysterious. More people are living in single-parent households, which tend to have less income. Differences in education and skill levels have a more pronounced impact on incomes in a global economy.
And there are other reasons. One economist attributes a recent spurt in the size of the gap to a disparity in recovery from the 1990-1991 recession. The rebound in incomes since then has been concentrated in high-income households.
It is an old axiom that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But it is also axiomatic that a democracy is increasingly strained, and eventually threatened, by radically and rigidly divergent prospects for the wealthy and the struggling. The trend is dangerous as well as unjust.
LENGTH: Short : 33 linesby CNB