What happened to the American Dream?

One of the great traditions of the United States is an improving standard of living. Materially, things just get better. The last decade is a great example. We've enjoyed a historic economic boom. Unemployment levels have dropped to very low levels. There's been little inflation. Salaries are way up. Wall Street has experienced fantastic growth. We're better off than we've ever been. Yes, it appears we've hit some bumps in the past half year. But basically, our economy is doing great. And so are we. Or at least we're told that. Over and over.\nBut not long ago, I learned something shocking. I learned that this tradition has ended for a lot of Americans. Worse, this is especially true for people with low and lower-middle incomes. The very people we want to see make the biggest gain in their standard of living.\nLet me give you some of the facts that shocked me. They are from the U.S. Census Bureau.\nTake those families whose incomes make up the lowest fifth of all families in the United States. In 1980 the average family in this group made about $12,000 each year (before taxes, in 1998 dollars, adjusted for inflation).\nNow advance about 20 years, to 1998. You would hope (and I assumed) that their income would increase, once you take inflation into account. But they don't. Over those 18 years, their income dropped 1 percent! Wow. It hurts me to know that.\nThose are the families with incomes in the lowest fifth. What about the next fifth, average income of about $27,000 in 1980? Not much different. Their income increased 7 percent, so they had another $1,800 to spend in 1998. That's a 0.4 percent raise each year. Just give me the Christmas ham, okay boss?\nI'll speed up a little here. You have the facts for two of five families in the United States. And things look bad. They look a little better for the middle fifth, average income $41,000 in 1980. A little. They enjoy a whopping 12 percent increase in income over 18 years, or 0.7 percent annually. Things are better again for the next fifth, average income $57,000 in 1980.\nTheir income increases to $68,000, an improvement of 18 percent. One percent raise each year! Whoopee!\nThat\'s 80 percent of families. And it's still discouraging. But wait.\nWe still have the top fifth, average income $96,000 in 1980. Finally, something to feel good about! Their real income increased 44 percent! They have another $43,000 to spend in 1998! Yes!\nBasically, the gap between the wealthiest fifth and everyone else keeps growing. They are leaving the rest of us behind. Likewise, the gap between the poorest fifth and everyone else keeps increasing. Things are getting worse, not better. And this is the United States. Something is terribly wrong.\nBut the above isn't the worst of it. No, I learned something else I want to tell you about. The facts above are about income. But a better measure of how well off you are, economically, is called wealth. It's the total value of everything you own, minus outstanding debts. I won't go over change in the past 20 years. I'll just give you a snapshot of wealth in 1998. These numbers aren't from the Census; they're from a standard sociology textbook.\nFirst, the bottom fifth of families have less than no wealth.\nLess than NONE. Their debts are larger than the value of everything they own. That's 1 in 5 families in the United States. The next fifth owns 1 percent of all private wealth in the United States. They have more assets than debt, but not by much. The middle fifth owns 5 percent of all the wealth in the United States, and the next fifth, 15 percent. So let's add those up. 15 percent plus 5 percent plus 1 percent. Oh yes, minus 1 percent (for the poorest fifth, who are in debt). That's 20 percent. Who owns the remaining 80 percent of all the private wealth in the United States? The wealthiest fifth of families of course. But even within that group, there is a big disparity. The top 5 percent own more than half of all private wealth, and the top 1 percent have about one third. That's half again more than the bottom four fifths! Is that incredible, or what?\nI simply cannot believe this is what we Americans want. It is not the nation so many Americans made heroic struggles for. This is a problem we've got to face up to. We have to take it on, to dedicate ourselves to changing it. Because it isn't getting better, it's getting worse. I won't suggest solutions, because I believe there are so many, existing and still to be thought of. Instead, I will just say that there won't be any solutions, until we stop our denial. Ask yourself -- Is this a real problem? And what ideas do I have, for addressing it?