Free Republic

Since 1970 the value of the dollar has steadily declined. The lower 80% of Americans have lost income and purchasing power, largely due to the exodus of manufacturing by global corporations. As a result, the wealth gap between the global rich and the rest has widened. From 2007-2016 the net worth of the richest Americans increased by 20% while the lower 80% decreased by the same percentage, widening the wealth gap considerably. The Federal Reserve sparked this change using quantitative easing to boost the sagging stock market. The rich could invest in this wealth explosion but the rest could not...

The Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) exposed a massive racial wealth gap in the U.S. In 2022, the typical African American family has 16 cents on the dollar compared to the typical white family—about $44,900 compared to $285,000. (The typical Hispanic family has 22 cents on the dollar compared to a median white family.) This perpetuates a pattern that dates to 1983, when Black and white workers’ wealth began to diverge across income brackets. In the early 1980s, experts saw this gap as an anomaly and predicted that it would narrow as younger Black Americans with more...

With the next round of Democratic presidential candidate debates upon us, we will surely hear more about government activism to fix racial inequalities. Inequality is real and needs attention. According to the Urban Institute, average white household wealth in 2016 was $171,000 compared with average black household wealth of $17,409. Sen. Cory Booker wants government to make deposits into savings accounts for low-income children to the tune of up to $50,000 each. Sen. Kamala Harris proposes $100 billion in government subsidies for black homeownership. These kinds of proposals may win some black votes, but should they? Will they really make...

From reparations to "baby bonds," Democratic candidates are proposing big ideas to confront inequality. If you’ve been to an event with a Democrat running for president this year, there's a good chance you’ve heard about it: the racial wealth gap. Candidates are regularly bringing up the fact that the typical black family has only one-tenth the assets of the typical white family — a divide that has grown larger than it was 35 years ago. Far from a niche concern, candidates have incorporated it into their signature proposals. They've addressed it in speeches not just to black churches in South...

The United States is becoming much more racially and ethnically diverse. At the same time, it’s becoming more unequal in terms of wealth and income. These two trends are combining in an uncomfortable way: the wealth and income divide is happening along racial and ethnic lines.The typical black household now has just 6% of the wealth of the typical white household; the typical Latino household had just 8%, according to The Racial Wealth Gap: Why Policy Matters, by Demos, a public policy organization promoting democracy and equality, and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy.In absolute terms, the median white...

Education is supposed to help bridge the gap between the wealthiest people and everyone else. […] Wealthier parents have been stepping up education spending so aggressively that they’re widening the nation’s wealth gap. When the Great Recession struck in late 2007 and squeezed most family budgets, the top 10 percent of earners—with incomes averaging $253,146—went in a different direction: They doubled down on their kids’ futures. Their average education spending per child jumped 35 percent to $5,210 a year during the recession compared with the two preceding years—and they sustained that faster pace through the recovery. For the remaining 90...

Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap.He attacked the "widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs", calling on governments to implement "effective policies" to guarantee people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, healthcare and technology.

the last half-decade has proved far worse for black and Hispanic families than for white families when it comes to wealth — as measured by assets, like cash savings, homes and retirement accounts, minus debts, like mortgages and credit card balances — white families have far outpaced black and Hispanic ones. Before the recession, non-Hispanic white families, on average, were about four times as wealthy as nonwhite families, according to the Urban Institute’s analysis of Federal Reserve data. By 2010, whites were about six times as wealthy. The dollar value of that gap has grown, as well. By the most...

BOSTON (AP) -- The widening wealth gap between whites and minorities has wiped out gains made over the last 30 years and could foreshadow even more inequality if something isn't done to address it, National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Speaking a day before the National Urban League begins its annual convention, Morial said new census data analyzed by the Pew Research Center shows that blacks and Latinos have especially been hit hard by the economic meltdown.

<p>The wealth gap between whites and each of the nation's two largest minorities—Hispanics and blacks—has widened to unprecedented levels amid the housing crisis and the recession, according to new research.</p> <p>The median net worth of white households is 20 times greater than that of black households and 18 times greater than that of Hispanic households, according to an analysis of newly available 2009 government data by the Pew Research Center, an independent think tank.</p>

Yet another survey confirms what we already know: Blacks don’t save as much as their white counterparts. According to Prudential’s new study — the African American Financial Experience — 60 percent of African-Americans have less than $50,000 in company retirement plans and only 23 percent have more than $100,000. They’re also three times more likely to raid their 401(k) or other retirement plans to meet immediate financial needs, the study says. Prudential’s findings echo research by Ariel Investments, which looks at middle class blacks. (According to Ariel’s July 2010 study, the median assets blacks have retirement plans is about half...

Women of all races bring home less income and own fewer assets, on average, than men of the same race, but for single black women the disparities are so overwhelmingly great that even in their prime working years their median wealth amounts to only $5. In a groundbreaking report released Monday by a leading economic research group, social scientists turned a spotlight on the grave financial challenges facing an often overlooked group of women, many of whom could not take an unpaid sick day or repair a major appliance without going into debt. "It's rather shocking," said Meizhu Lui, director...

WITH markets swinging widely, the Federal Reserve slashing interest rates and the word “recession” on everybody’s lips, renewed attention is being given to the gap between the haves and have-nots in America. Most of this debate, however, is focused on the wrong measurement of financial well-being. It’s true that the share of national income going to the richest 20 percent of households rose from 43.6 percent in 1975 to 49.6 percent in 2006, the most recent year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has complete data. Meanwhile, families in the lowest fifth saw their piece of the pie fall...