iCitizen Forum - Jared Bernstein Interview - Wealth Inequality

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Since the mid 70's the gap between rich and poor in the United States has been growing consistently to the point where it is now the largest it has been since 1929. The richest 1% of Americans today control 22% of the wealth of the country when in 1980 they accounted for just 8%. Despite an economy that has been growing for decades, doubling in size since the early nineties, many have yet to see the benefits of this improvement.

Excessive wealth inequality has been a concern for people from all sides of the political spectrum, and is a matter that has serious repercussions for the health of our democracy. De Tocqueville, writing in the mid 19th century, believed that American Democracy rested on the relative equality of social conditions that existed in the new world and more recently the former head of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan has commented that wealth inequality "is not the type of thing which a democratic society?a capitalist democratic society?can really accept without addressing.?

To discover more about the phenomenon of wealth inequality in the US today, The iCitizen Forum talked to Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of the State of Working America about the issue. Jared is an expert on wealth inequality and has published widely in forums such as The New York Times, Washington Post, American Prospect, and Research in Economics and Statistics. He is also a former Deputy Chief Economist at the US department of Labor.

The iCitizen forum is a bimonthly discussion of democracy hosted by George Turner, that seeks to promote serious political dialogue in the online community. Please visit our website www.icitizenforum.com to discuss any of the ideas raised in our video blog
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  • video added January 15, 2008

4 comments // iCitizen Forum - Jared Bernstein Interview - Wealth Inequality // Video

  •  

    Thank you for interviewing Mr. Bernstein! This guy tells it like it is! It's not some Eco man telling me this is just a slump and the economy will jump back up.
    I have always been amazed the "Electorate" would vote or approve of this whole "YoYo", "Trickle Down", "Libritarians" economics! It's is cutting your nose off inspite of your face voting. How do we expect to have a strong society if we don't invest in it. Invest in the "Infrastructure", roads, bridges, youth, environment, future technology, elders, and the working people who support the economy.
    All of the above will benefit Corporations and/or the wealth in the long term. The health of a society is what will determine the health of a Corporation and it will sustain a wealthy estate.

    theprimtv1
  •  

    Oh crap! I forgot to tell you something!
    Your Doc was very informative and has a great production technique/cinemantography!

    :)

    theprimtv1
  •  

    I guess if the government spends more of OUR (The Middle Class Majority) tax dollars abroad then it should solve all our problems right?

    It is beyond me that someone is so careless with their country's citizens.

    chaddb88
  •  

    cannibalism. it's not just for cannibals anymore.

    ambulantic
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