The U.S. suffers from staggering economic inequality — as staggering, in some places, as Nigeria, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. Richard Florida ran the numbers and compared cities in the U.S. to highly unequal foreign countries. That colorful map might look pretty, but its implications for U.S. income inequality are not.
And don’t forget that America also has one of the worst rates for economic mobility (ie, the ability to change your socioeconomic class through bootstraps) in the world. Here’s a fun fact: the Waltons - the heirs to the Walmart fortune - have as much wealth as the entire bottom 41% of Americans combined. That means that if the poorest 127 MILLION Americans combine their bank accounts, they would be just about even with the Walton family. Tell me again how the wealthy need tax breaks?
