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Disparity in Economic Resources (cont'd - 2)

Source:  Ackerman & Alstott, The Stakeholder Society, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

• "The indisputable fact is that almost all of our newfound abundance has gone to the top 20 percent." (p. 1) citing Wolff, E. N., "Trends in the Size Distribution of Household Wealth," 12 Journal of Economic Perspectives 131 (Summer 1998).  See also the report of The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which projected that in 1999 the wealthiest 1% of the  population would receive as much after-tax income as the bottom 38% combined--that is, the 2.7 million Americans with the largest incomes were expected to receive as much as the 100 million Americans with the lowest incomes.

• "From 1983-1995, only the top 5 percent [of the U.S. population] experienced an increase in net worth; in every other group, wealth declined, with the bottom 40 percent experiencing the sharpest decline." (nt. 2, Chapter 1, p. 231, see also Chapt. 6, pp. 95-96)

• "See Weicher (1996), pp. 11-13 (. . . finding that in 1989 the richest 1 percent owned 35 percent of total net worth and that the top 20 percent received 80 percent of the aggregate increase in net worth from 1983-89)." (p. 245, note 10)

• "The statistics on income and wages are no less grim. Since the early 1970s, the average family's income has grown little, and the typical male worker has seen his real wages decline. Only the entry of vast numbers of women into the labor force has produced meager gains in median family income. . . . By the mid-1990s [however], the top 5 percent of American families received 20 percent of total income--a larger share than at any time since 1947." (pp. 1-2, nts. 3-5, p. 231)

• "Although the percentage of children in poverty has fallen over the long term, it has climbed since the mid-1970s and was 20.5 percent in 1996." (p. 26)

• "A recent study found that one-third of all households, but 61 percent of black ones, have absolutely no net financial wealth.  While middle-class blacks earn about 70 percent of middle-class white wages, they own only 15 percent of white middle-class wealth." (pp. 60-61, studies cited at notes 35-36).

• "Free universal public education represents a solemn affirmation of the ideal of equal opportunity. But despite formal guarantees, there remain tremendous disparities. Richer parents have a much greater choice about where to live and whether to send their children to private schools. Among public schools, wealthier school districts spend more than poorer ones, . . . Students from richer communities consistently outperform those from poorer ones on standardized tests." (pp. 26-27, notes 10-12)

• "Among teenagers, SAT scores strongly correlate with parental income, and high-income students can more easily afford special coaching, remedial help, and private schools. It is no surprise, then, that students with high socioeconomic status are almost twice as likely to enroll in higher education as students at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale. At the end of the day, 51 percent of students from the top quarter of the economic hierarchy earn bachelor's degrees, compared to 22 percent of middle-status students and only 7.2 percent in the lowest [quarter]." (p. 27)  Click here for more information on how disparities in income and wealth affect educational opportunity.

• "If we are committed to equality of opportunity, shouldn't our first concern be the woeful inequalities in the educational system?" (pp. 27-28) (For more on how these inequalities might be addressed, see How the Public School System is Failing Our Children.)

• "In the meantime, the existing system will continue to generate harsh consequences, especially for the 75 percent of young Americans who do not graduate from four-year colleges. Family income for this enormous group have been stagnating for decades, as college graduates have skimmed off the nation's growth." (p. 29, nt. 29)

For more information on how disparities in income and economic resources can affect health, see the Inequality and Health Conference held in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2000.

For more information on how disparities in income and economic resources affect educational opportunity, see Equal Educational Opportunity and Income Disparity.]

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