America’s wealth gap reaches new record; societal tensions rise as economic collapse looms

Monday, December 28, 2015
By Paul Martin

by: Daniel Barker
NaturalNews.com
Monday, December 28, 2015

The gap between upper-income and middle-class Americans is greater than ever, according to a recent study published by the Pew Research Institute.

The report, based on data from the Federal Reserve, indicates that the median wealth for high-income families is now nearly seven times that of middle-class households. Median wealth, determined by subtracting debts from assets, was found to be unchanged over the past three years for middle-income families, standing at $96,500 after adjusting for inflation.

In contrast, median wealth for upper-income families was $639,400 — an increase of 7 percent over the last three years. Pew says that this is the biggest gap seen since the Fed began keeping records three decades ago:

The latest data reinforces the larger story of America’s middle-class household wealth stagnation over the past three decades. The Great Recession destroyed a significant amount of middle-income and lower-income families’ wealth, and the economic ‘recovery’ has yet to be felt for them.

Pew’s definition of middle-income is based on households that earn between two-thirds and two times the median income, after adjusting for the number of people in the household. According to this definition, 46 percent of American households are considered middle-income.

A full third of Americans are in the low-income bracket, while 21 percent are classified as high-income.

The research shows that, across the board, Americans are struggling to regain the losses incurred during the Great Recession, but those in the high-income category lost less of their holdings during the years between 2007 and 2010. High-income Americans have also recovered much of the lost wealth from that period, while low-income households have not recovered their losses at all.

Over the longer term, high-income households have managed to double their wealth since 1983, while for middle-income families, very little has changed in the same period, after adjustments for inflation.

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