Inequality – long ignored – is now centre stage in debate about economic policy around the globe. As Tony Atkinson and Salvatore Morelli note [3], the 2007-2008 collapse of the global financial system and the subsequent economic downturn/debt crises have acted as a catalyst for growing anxiety around the increasing dispersion of incomes within most advanced economies. In an effort to show that "we are not 'all in it together'", the two professors have created The Chartbook of Income Inequality [4].
As the chart below shows, the acute loss of job prospects, especially among the young, the credit crunch and the austerity measures implemented by governments to contain the sovereign debt crisis have all put extra burden on the shoulders of the lower and middle classes.
Income Inequality In The US...
[5]
Summed up
[6]
And the huge interactive version...