Are You ALICE? 43 Percent of All Americans Are

The United Way has released a study on Americans they classify as ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The study found that this group does not make the money needed “to survive in the modern economy.” Are you ALICE, too? The study found that 51 million American households struggle to pay for food […]

How Do We Reverse Extreme Wealth Concentration?

How Do We Reverse Extreme Wealth Concentration

The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) published a white paper titled Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us. The IPS is a multi-issue think tank that has been conducting research on inequality for more than 20 years. The key takeaway from their study is that policymakers should be much more concerned with the question […]

Are We All Just Jealous of the 1 Percent?

Jealous of the 1 Percent

Wealth Inequality The Walton family owns Walmart. They also own more wealth than 40 percent of all Americans. The 400 wealthiest people in the nation own more wealth than 61 percent of the country combined, or about 194 million people. Do we envy their wealth? Income Inequality The top 1 percent of Americans makes on average 25 times […]

Student Loan Forgiveness Could Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap

Targeted Student Loan Forgiveness Could Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap

The racial wage gap is wider today than in it was in 1979. And according to this recent Washington Post article, student debt is exacerbating the gap. Student loans make it more difficult for to save money and accumulate assets. Targeted student loan forgiveness could narrow the racial wealth gap. Education levels directly influence both economic opportunity and […]

Key Takeaways from Bank of America’s 2016 Survey of the Wealthy

Bank of America's 2016 Survey of the Wealthy

Bank of America’s 2016 Insights on Wealth and Worth survey of the wealthy contains some very interesting findings. The survey studies the attitudes and behavior of wealthy and very wealthy adults in the United States. U.S. Trust, which operates as a division of Bank of America Private Wealth Management, has been surveying the perspective of the wealthy […]

American Employees: Consumers or Costs?

The American Employee -- Consumers or Costs - wages v. profits

Henry Blodget, CEO of business news site Business Insider, recently published a blog titled Time for a Better Capitalism. The article examines how U.S. corporations think of American employees as “costs,” instead of as consumers. Blodget claims that shift has, over time, fundamentally changed American capitalism. By paying good wages, investing in future products, and generating reasonable (not “maximized”) […]

Income Inequality and Income Mobility Go Hand in Hand

Income Inequality and Income Mobility Go Hand in Hand

I have previously written about the stunning state of income inequality in America. Two necessary ingredients of Americanism — meritocracy and momentum — are missing in America today. This article looks the relationship between income inequality and income mobility. We define income inequality as the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population. We […]

Happy Equal Pay Day from Lee Legal

The United States celebrates Equal Pay Day today. The purpose of the day, which was first observed in 1996, is to mark how long women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. On average, a woman in the United States must work about four extra months each year to earn the […]