American Dreams
There is a common response to America among foreign writers: the US is a land of extremes where the best of things are just as easily found as the worst. This is a cliché (陈词滥调).
In the land of black and white, people should not be too surprised to find some of the biggest gaps between the rich and the poor in the world. But the American Dream offers a way out to everyone. (1) No class system or government stands in the way.
Sadly, this old argument is no longer true. Over the past few decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of the American economy.
The gap between the rich and the poor has widened and widened. (2)
Over the past 25 years the median US family income has gone up 18 per cent. For the top 1 per cent, however, it has gone up 200 per cent. Twenty-five years ago the top fifth of Americans had an average income 6.7 times that of the bottom fifth. (3)
Inequalities have grown worse in different regions. In California, incomes for lower class families have fallen by 4 per cent since 1969. (4) This has led to an economy hugely in favor of a small group of very rich Americans. The wealthiest 1 per cent of households now control a third of the national wealth. There are now 37 million Americans living in poverty. At 12.7 per cent of the population, it is the highest percentage in the developed world.
Yet the tax burden on America’s rich is falling, not growing. (5) There was an economic theory holding that the rich spending more would benefit everyone as a whole. But clearly that theory has not worked in reality.
A. Nobody is poor in the US.
B. The top 0.01 per cent of households has seen its tax bite fall by a full 25 percentage points since 1980.
C. For upper class families they have risen 41 per cent.
D. Now it is 9. 8 times.
E. As it does so, the possibility to cross that gap gets smaller and smaller.
F. All one has to do is to work hard and climb the ladder towards the top.
American Dreams