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This article considers what widening inequalities in incomes and wealth reveal about the United States, and considers the chances that this issue will become a factor in the 2004 presidential race. Does America really have an inequality problem? Statistically, the answer is "Yes, but". Much the same applies to the question of whether the Democrats can turn this into a winning political issue. By whatever measure you use, the richest Americans have done very well over the past few decades. Take wealth rather than income, and America's disparity is even more startling. The wage incomes of the bottom 20% of households have barely grown in real terms since the mid-1970s. As for wealth, the bottom fifth has debts that exceed its assets, making its wealth a negative number. The bottom fifth's percentage of national wealth worsened from -0.3% in 1983 to -0.6% in 1998. These depressing statistics, though, come with two caveats. First, poorer Americans are better off than they once were. Second, America is a remarkably mobile society. As this year's Economic Report of the President points out, 50-80% of the unfortunates in America's bottom quintile push themselves into a higher quintile after 10 years. Most Americans seem to understand that inequality is not just to do with tax cuts for the rich.

Reports the results of a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that examined the income disparities between the rich and the poor. Changes in the disparities, including a growth in the amount of wealth inherited by the top one percent of the population; Statistics from the study; Possible causes of the changes in disparities.