Issues in economics

America's household incomes have become increasingly unequal. In the early 1970s, the change was small, but by the late 1970s, the growing disparity between rich and poor was clearly evident. The difference grew even larger in the 1980s and continues to increase into the 1990s. A debate centers on whether the increased inequality of year-by-year incomes provides information about the distribution of success and opportunity over longer time periods. To they extent that well-being is measured by comparison with others, the widening inequality of lifetime incomes may indeed threaten the US' standing as a land of opportunity.