According to IRS and census data, the gap between the incomes of the richest and poorest Americans has been growing since the late 1970's. Timothy Noah of Slate has written a series of articles about this, and posted a slideshow of the data and his interpretations here: http://www.slate.com/id/2266174/slideshow/2266174/fs/0//entry/2266173/
Take a look and consider the political implications of these trends. What could it mean for political participation, polarization, and fiscal policy? How would you advise either the GOP or the Democratic party to respond for the mid-term elections?
Also posted by Timothy Noah at Slate is this chart, which shows what different groups of people BELIEVED to be the distribution of wealth in the US and compares it to the actual. Does this change your thinking about the political implications of the income gap? Why?
