America's Income Gap Widest Ever Recorded | 'Dead' Middle Class

America’s income gap between the richest and poorest grew last year to its widest amount ever recorded.

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans — those making more than $100,000 each year — received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line, according to newly released census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968. via AP

Income grew slightly for the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans who earn more than $180,000 and slipped further for families at the $50,000 median level. The top 1% of earners got 20 percent of the income. A major change in conversations about rebooting America’s economy is focused on the lack of business consumption and job creation opportunities created by a ‘dead’ middle class.

Consumers have little money, compared to the fifties and sixties and the years that made America great. Robert Reich talks in Income gap leading to ‘dead’ economy. via Miami Herald