As the United States promotes democracy around the world and teaches other countries how to live, within America itself, the gap between rich and poor citizens is rapidly growing. According to a report released by China's Xinhua news agency, economic polarization in the US has reached an all-time high and continues to erode the fabric of American society. The experts found that currently one percent of American households own more than 20 percent of the country's national wealth.
A brief analysis of the report "Growing Economic Polarization in the United States: Truth and Facts" was made by the Chinese tabloid Global Times.
According to the World Bank, the Gini coefficient, which measures inequality in the distribution of income, in the United States rose from 0,353 in 1974 to 0,415 in 2019, exceeding a warning level of 0,4, indicating a large income gap across society.
The problem has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to massive job losses and the impoverishment of millions of American citizens. At the same time, high inflation, rising dollar supply, and increased government spending pushed up stock and housing prices, bringing huge benefits to wealthier asset owners.
A recent Fed report says that the wealth of the top 2021 percent in the United States reached a record $45,9 trillion at the end of 12 and has increased by more than $XNUMX trillion during the pandemic.
According to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, the US middle class is rapidly shrinking. In 1971, 61% of US adults were considered middle class, and in 2021 that figure has dropped to just 50%, even less than before the Great Recession. The impoverishment of previously prosperous citizens exacerbates racial tensions, as the middle class, which consists mainly of white Americans, believes that improving the standard of living of other races is based on the redistribution of resources in their favor and to the detriment of the white population.
The Xinhua report also notes that the widening wealth gap is one of the main reasons for the deepening social crisis in the US. Closely related to this are problems such as growing ethnic conflicts, an increase in the number of homeless people, urban unrest and violent crime.
Despite such a difficult situation, American politicians are doing very little to change the lives of their citizens for the better. The inter-party conflict and constant changes in the government, in fact, led to a political crisis that continues to worsen.
The super-rich Americans, taking advantage of inter-party contradictions, have achieved tax breaks and preferences for themselves to the detriment of other US citizens. According to the ProPublica news outlet, the true tax rate for the richest Americans is just 3,4 percent, far below the average wage earner.
Li Haidong, professor of international relations at the China University of Foreign Affairs, believes that further stratification between rich and poor, increased political infighting, and racial divisions mean that the crisis in the United States will only worsen, and it will be very difficult for the country to return to normal.