Gini coefficient

I just finished reading a special report in the Economist on the trajectory of wealth and income distribution on a global basis.  The data show that the US has become more and more unequal primarily at the top 1% and the top 0.01%.  The US social safety net ensures the poor haven't lost as much ground as the lower middle class.  Those folks without a good education are steadily losing ground.   The broad trends of globalization and automation are key drivers behind this trend.  I have discussed these here before.

In addition to those broad trends that impact all low skilled workers in the developed world, in the US we have two additional factors, one social factor and one government policy.   The social factor is that more and more working class children live in one parent households and with that comes a slew of educational and development disadvantages. The government policy issue is that the US spends much less on the poor  as a percentage of  GDP - especially in education - than most development nations.

One of the conclusions of the Economist is that as income and wealth inequalities become too extreme than the nation's overall growth and prosperity will suffer.  Ironically this essentially is in agreement with the socialist perspective.

So this all reinforces my thesis that the government policy that promotes even modest  wealth and income "redistribution" will be a  job creation policy.  

The Presidential election debates had little substance.  But it seems to me that Gov. Romney ran on  decreasing income tax rates across the board while Pres. Obama has now run two victorious national campaigns on the policy of increasing tax rates for those making more than $250,000 or more in taxable income.

Let's see if Pres. Obama holds firm.  I don't think it will make much difference but at least it would be a step in the right direction.