The increasing wealth concentration in the US, say the writers of the following article, is being fuelled by corporate greed, and the resulting wealth inequality poses serious threats to the country's democracy and civic life. For the most part, the corporate press, caught up in their euphoria over this bubble economy, has ignored the reality on the ground. They generally ignored, for example, the bit of reality recently presented in succinct detail by the Boston-based United for a Fair Economy. But the wealthiest households reaped most of the gains.
Financial wealth is even more concentrated.
The boom has been a bust for millions of Americans. Workers are earning less, adjusting for inflation, than they did when Richard Nixon was president. Families have sunk deeper into debt. Credit card limits have risen to the point that the average person can charge more than eight times what they already owe. There is little question that wealth concentration presented in this report is being fuelled by corporate greed.