INEQUALITY GAPS SPREADING ACROSS THE RANGE OF AMERICAN LIFE

“In a September 2015 essay, ‘The Dangerous Separation of the American Upper Middle Class,’ Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at the Brookings [Institution], writes:

‘The top fifth have been prospering while the majority lags behind. But the separation is not just economic. Gaps are growing on a whole range of dimensions, including family structure, education, lifestyle, and geography. Indeed, these dimensions of advantage appear to be clustering more tightly together, each thereby amplifying the effect of the other.’

“The same pattern emerges in the case of education. Reeves cites data showing that 56 percent of heads of households in the top quintile have college or advanced degrees, compared with 34 percent in the third and fourth quintiles and 17 percent in the bottom two quintiles.

Thomas B. Edsall, “How the Other Fifth Lives,” New York Times, April 27, 2016, Op-Ed Page.