SHh...Don't tell anybody but the US is insolvent because of welfare benefits, overpaid government workers and bailouts of financial institutions,
The wealth gap & income gap will always widen. The only time it really narrows is during a recession when the value of investments drop. But wage growth last year was the highest its been in a decade, and the highest wage growth came at lower income levels. So I don't really see the problem.
The problem is “ in a decade “ that says a lot. In that time gaps widen, money has concentrated into fewer hands and just about everything we buy has outpaced the wage growth.
The gap doesn't matter as long as the people at the lower end of the scale have adequate opportunity. Which they should have even if there was no gap. It is evil but very easy for government to shift blame onto people who have a high income when it is the government's fault for only providing rubbish public welfare, housing and education services for those on low income.
I would definitely agree. I moved from a urban area in NY to a rural/frontier location in Washington State. Cost of living expenses are near zero. My next move is to a desolate area in Alaska....they pay you to love there. The law of supply and demand is very apparent. Population density maps are a good tool to relocate.
Or providing a backstop for reckless investments. I agree, if you invested your companies funds recklessly then you should not receive welfare from the poor or middle class . Same argument just in reverse.
Aside from the overall veracity of "Swedish think tanks", it would really help to have a link; I would suspect the above to be somewhat related to property prices. If you don't own your home, you are f*cked in the big cities (oh yeah, you can also spend half your life in a queue for a rental place). Still, I would rather be "poor" in Sweden than the US as I would never worry about healthcare expenses, worry less about education for my hypothetical children (Swedish school system though very well funded sucks for different reasons), etc. (Yeah I am from and living in Sweden.)
We have a lot larger land mass so it basically boils down to, your only as poor as the area code you live in. You can blame big corporations for there use of credit redlining based on mainly area. codes.