The Politics of Income Inequality, by Eduardo Porter, May 13, 2014, New York Times: “The years from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were not the most egalitarian in American history. Robber barons roamed the economy, living off lavish rents generated by powerful cartels and industrial monopolies. The richest 1 percent of Americans reaped nearly one in five dollars generated by the economy and amassed almost half its wealth; at the other end of the scale, wage earners lost ground to inflation. It was the era of the Haymarket riots and Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.” Workers staged 1,500 strikes in 1886 alone. Ultimately, though, the disparities in wealth. . .”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty