By: Npr
Dec 05, 2019
A new Gilded Age has emerged in America — a 21st century version.
The wealth of the top 1% of Americans has grown dramatically in the past four decades, squeezing both the middle class and the poor. This is in sharp contrast to Europe and Asia, where the wealth of the 1% has grown at a more constrained pace.
At the turn of the last century, European aristocrats controlled even more of their national wealth than robber barons in the U.S. But for much of the 20th century tycoon fortunes gave way to a rising middle class, and income inequality narrowed on both sides of the ocean.