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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

US Income Gap

A bigger economic pie, but a smaller slice for half of the U.S., By Patricia Cohen, December 6, 2016, New York Times: “Even with all the setbacks from recessions, burst bubbles and vanishing industries, the United States has still pumped out breathtaking riches over the last three and half decades.  The real economy more than doubled in size; the government now uses a substantial share of that bounty to hand over as much as $5 trillion to help working families, older people, disabled and unemployed people pay for a home, visit a doctor and put their children through school.  Yet for half of all Americans, their share of the total economic pie has shrunk significantly, new research has found…”