Inequality in Ancient Rome and Modern America

Staff / Truthdig Dec 21, 2011 Historians used the Gini coefficient, a modern measure of wealth inequality, to compare disparities between the classes in the Roman Empire 150 years after the death of Christ and those in the United States today. The ancients, with their ranks of plebeians, patricians and senators, scored slightly better than we did. (more) Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Making of the American 99% and the Collapse of the Middle Class

Staff / Truthdig Dec 17, 2011 Until a few months ago, the 99% was hardly a group capable of articulating “the identity of their interests.” It contained, and still contains, most “ordinary” rich people, along with middle-class professionals, factory workers, truck drivers, and miners, as well as the much poorer people who clean the houses, manicure the fingernails, and maintain the lawns of the affluent.Until recently, the 99% was hardly a group capable of articulating “the identity of their interests.” Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Introducing the ‘Near Poor’

Staff / Truthdig Nov 20, 2011 The Census Bureau published a new measure of poverty this month to more carefully count those Americans who are barely getting by. The new income category -- “near poor” -- is up for grabs to those in the OWS movement, who could use it to better tell their alternative story of broad American hardship. (more) Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Data Behind the Occupy Movement

Staff / Truthdig Nov 17, 2011 Do the Occupiers know what they’re talking about when they chant, “We are the 99 percent!”? With a quick animation, The Guardian breaks down the key economic data representing the conditions that have brought thousands of the disempowered and discontented into the streets all across the country. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

How Economic Inequality Harms Societies

Staff / Truthdig Oct 31, 2011 Richard Wilkinson and partner Kate Pickett ran the data and came to the conclusion that the national income of a country is insignificant to its social well-being when compared with income inequality. Wilkinson says, "If Americans want to live the American dream, they should go to Denmark." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Dismal Reports From Two U.S. Inequality Studies

Staff / Truthdig Oct 29, 2011 The 1 percenters targeted by those leading the Wall Street occupation had a profitable run between 1979 and 2007. Their average after-tax income grew 275 percent in that period, while income for the 60 percent of the population in the middle of the earning scale grew by just under 40 percent. (more) Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Activist Spells Out Our Great Shame

Staff / Truthdig Aug 22, 2011 Gus Speth, environmental lawyer, former Clinton adviser and founder of the Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute, who was arrested Sunday at the White House while protesting a proposed oil pipeline, has some bad news for American optimists. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Unions and Inequality by the Numbers

Staff / Truthdig Aug 7, 2011 The precise effects of the broad deunionization of the American workforce since the 1970s are difficult to quantify, but a recent paper from the American Sociological Review has made an effort anyway The study found that in addition to raising the income of union laborers (more). Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

EU Battles Extremes

Staff / Truthdig Jul 31, 2011 The EU decides to address far-right extremism; education fails to solve poverty and inequality, while Netflix may destroy TV networks. These discoveries and more after the jump. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Take the U.S. Inequality Quiz

Staff / Truthdig Jun 28, 2011 Think you have the dirt on inequality in America? Jeffrey Rudolph, a college accounting professor in Montreal, has crafted an extensive quiz stocked full of hard facts and figures from a range of authoritative sources that cuts through the myth and lies thrown up by America's leading misinformers. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Checking Up on the Millennium Development Goals

Staff / Truthdig Sep 18, 2010 Anyone remember the Millennium Development Goals that nations made at the beginning of this millennium? Well, it turns out some people do, and they are meeting Monday to evaluate the efficacy of efforts to reduce poverty, disease, intolerance and inequality. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Gender Inequality 101

Staff / Truthdig Aug 19, 2009 Conservatives love to claim we live in a post-racial or post-gender world, but researchers in England are reminding us of the persistent examples of inequality that mark our society. A new study demonstrates that women are less likely than men to be offered enrollment at England's prestigious Oxford University despite having the same grades as, or even better grades than, their male counterparts. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )