Large Cities Have Greater Income Inequality

Basically, there are no first world nations that have a Gini index over .40. Anything above .44 is in Banana Republic territory. The statistic for the U.S. was .47 in 2009. It was only .45 in 2007 and if was .41 in 2000. Since we are in the last month of 2011, you can be pretty sure that we are at or closing in on .50. That's Brazil territory. You can't be a first world nation at that level.

In fact, Brazil had hovered around .53 for a long time, but has been moving the opposite way for well over 10 years now and so they might already be out of the .50s .

The fact that the United States isn't viewed as a Banana Republic only means that the perception, nor some of the other statistics have caught up with where we are going. Our education is degrading and so is our infrastructure, and soon enough we'll be in the 3rd world where we belong. This is a consequence of political developments since the 1970s learch to the right. Elections do have consequences and the United States has deliberately chosen to ruin itself. If it's any consolation, they have some of the richest people in the world, but that's short lived as the customers of those very rich will soon be too poor to sustain those rich. As the middle class goes, so goes the nation. Soak the middle class, you soon soak everyone else.

Tim Kane of AZ 9:12PM December 05, 2011