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2 - The Consequences of Union Decline

from Part I - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2019

Richard Bales
Affiliation:
Ohio Northern University
Charlotte Garden
Affiliation:
Seattle University
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Summary

Economic inequality in the United States has reached heights unscaled since before the Great Depression. Today the top 1 percent wealthiest Americans hold nearly 40 percent of the country’s wealth (up from about 20 percent in 1980) and earn over one-fifth of all income (up from about 10 percent in 1980). The doubling of top-end wealth and income inequality has coincided with economic stagnation for millions of American workers, especially men, and especially men without a college education. These troubling trends led President Obama to announce that rising inequality and declining mobility are “the defining challenge[s] of our time.”

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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