Inequality has risen from 1970 to Trump – and the gap is getting wider

America has never been richer But the gains are so lopsided that the top controls of all wealth in the country while the bottom half controls just Meanwhile surging corporate profits have mostly benefited investors not the broader inhabitants This divide is expected to widen after President Donald Trump s sweeping new spending bill drastically cuts Medicaid and food aid programs that stabilize the financial market and subsidize low-wage employers Moreover the tax cuts at the heart of the bill will deliver tens of billions of dollars in benefits to the wealthiest households while disproportionately burdening low-income households according to analyses by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation By the bottom will pay more in taxes while the top receive billion in cuts I am a sociologist who studies economic inequality and my research demonstrates that the class-based inequalities exacerbated by the Trump bill are not new Rather they are part of a -year trend linked to social cleavages political corruption and a declining belief in the common good The roots of class-based inequality The decades following World War II were broadly prosperous but conditions began changing in the s Class inequality has increased enormously since then according to executive information while income inequality has risen for five decades at the expense of workers Economists usually gauge a country s economic robustness by looking at its gross domestic product as measured through total spending on everything from groceries to patents But another way to view GDP is by looking at whether the money goes to workers or business owners This second method the income approach offers a clearer picture of who really benefits from economic advance The money that goes to labor s share of GDP or workers is represented by employee compensation including wages salaries and benefits The money left over for businesses after paying for work and materials is called gross operating surplus or business surplus The share of GDP going to workers rose from to then fell between and The opposite happened with the business surplus falling in the early postwar decades before jumping from to in current times Meanwhile corporate profits have outpaced economic upsurge by since Within profits shareholder dividends as a share of GDP grew As of labor had lost all of the economic gains made since Had workers kept their share of GDP they would have earned trillion more in alone And no provision or federal action since has reversed this half-century trend When more of the financial sector goes to businesses instead of workers that poses serious social problems My research focuses on three that threaten democracy Fraying social bonds and livelihoods Not just an issue of income and assets growing class inequality represents the fraying of American society For instance inequality and the resulting hardship are linked to worse soundness outcomes Americans die younger than their peers in other rich countries and U S life expectancy has decreased especially among the poor Moreover economic struggles contribute to mental strength issues deaths of despair and profound problems such as addiction including tobacco alcohol and opioid abuse Inequality can disrupt families Kids who experience the stresses of poverty can develop neurological and emotional problems putting them at vulnerability for drug use as adults On the other hand when minimum wages increase and people begin saving wealth divorce danger falls Research shows inequality has a multitude of other negative consequences from reduced social mobility to lower social trust and even higher homicide rates Together these broad social consequences are linked to misery political discontent and normlessness Increasing corruption in politics Inequality is rising in the U S largely because business elites are exercising more influence over protocol outcomes research shows My related work on privatization explains how years of outsourcing populace functions through contracting disinvestment and job cuts threatens democratic accountability Research across different countries has repeatedly detected that higher income inequality increases political corruption It does so by undermining trust in cabinet and institutions and enabling elites to dominate policymaking while weakening populace oversight Since weakened campaign finance laws driven by monied interests have sharply increased corruption risks The Supreme Court ruled then in Citizens United to lift campaign finance restrictions enabling unlimited political spending It reached an apex in when Elon Musk spent million to elect Trump before later installing his Starlink equipment onto Federal Aviation Administration systems in a informed takeover of a billion contract with Verizon Research shows that a large majority of Americans believe that the market is rigged suggesting everyday people sense the link between inequality and corruption Undermining belief in the common good National aspirations have emphasized the common good since America s founding The Declaration of Independence lists the king s first offense as undermining the society good by subverting the rule of law The Constitution s preamble commits the establishment to promoting the general welfare and shared well-being But higher inequality historically means the common good goes overlooked according to research Meanwhile work has become more precarious less unionized more segmented and less geographically stable Artificial intelligence may worsen these trends This tends to coincide with a drop in voting and other forms of civic engagement The establishment has fewer mechanisms for protecting region when rising inequality is paired with lower taxes for the wealthy and reduced citizens information My research finds that citizens sector unions especially bolster civic engagement in this setting Given increasing workplace and social isolation America s loneliness epidemic is unsurprising especially for low earners All of these factors and their contribution to alienation can foster authoritarian beliefs and individualism When people become cold and distrustful of one another the notion of the common good collapses Inequality as a program outcome News coverage of the Trump bill and framework debate have largely centered on immediate gains and losses But zoomed out a clearer picture emerges of the long-term dismantling of foundations that once supported broad economic precaution That in turn has enabled democratic decline As labor s share of the financial market declined so too did the institutional trust and shared social values that underpin democratic life Among the multiple consequences are the political discontent and disillusionment shaping our current moment Republicans hold both chambers of Congress through making major agenda changes unlikely in the short term Democrats opposed the bill but are out of power And their coalition is divided between a centrist establishment and an insurgent progressive wing with diverging priorities in addressing inequality Yet democratic decline and inequality are not inevitable If restoring broad prosperity and social stability are the goals they may require revisiting the New Deal-style policies that produced labor s peak economic share of of GDP in Nathan Meyers is a Ph D candidate in sociology at UMass Amherst This article is republished from The Conversation The post Inequality has risen from to Trump and the gap is getting wider appeared first on MinnPost