Title: Income Inequality in America - Definition, Causes & Statistics
Headings: Income Inequality in America – Definition, Causes & Statistics
Income Inequality in America – Definition, Causes & Statistics
The Great Divergence
A Belief in Fairness and Justice
Causes of Inequality
1. Technology
2. Globalization
3. Government Policy
4. Polarization and Political Dysfunction
Possible Actions to Reduce Income Disparity
Final Word

Content: Offshoring has become a common practice enabled by technology that eliminates experience and expertise barriers, as well as by competing governments that impose minimal regulations and offer extravagant tax benefits. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is no reliable data base to determine how many American workers have lost their jobs to offshoring. In an article of the April-June 2009 issue of “World Economics,” Princeton economist Alan Binder estimated that up to 30 million jobs were “offshorable” at that time, including highly technical jobs such as computer programmers, systems analysts, machine operators, and software engineers. Certainly, the threat of offshoring is a deterrent to wage and salary increases for American workers. 3. Government Policy
One of the biggest falsehoods fostered upon the American people is that lowering personal tax rates stimulates investment and growth of the economy. For example, Peter Sperry, writing for The Heritage Foundation, claimed in 2001 that Reagan’s “deep across-the-board tax cuts, market deregulation, and sound monetary policies” resulted in the “largest peacetime economic boom in American history.” His view was echoed by Peter Ferrara, who served in the White House Office of Policy Development under Ronald Reagan, and as associate deputy attorney general under George H.W. Bush. Writing in Forbes, Ferrara claimed that Reagan’s tax cuts restored incentives for economic growth. But however influential their view is, it is not shared by economists in general – not even by Martin Feldstein, who was Reagan’s chief economic adviser when the tax cuts were initiated.