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Nations with more progressive tax and transfer systems have less income inequality. Germany cut inequality more than average. America ranks near most unequal.
Attitudes toward poor people matter. A 2008 OECD study found Americans and Koreans more likely to call them lazy compared to Nordic and continental European respondents.
A US canard suggests that anyone working hard enough can get rich. John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) once wrote that at least some poor Americans saw themselves "not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
In his 1925 short story titled "Rich Boy," F. Scott Fitzgerald said:
"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early...They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we".""Even when they enter deep into our world....they still think that that they are better than we are. They are different."
In his article, titled "The Truth About 'Class War' in America," economist Richard Wolff said:
"The last 50 years have indeed seen continuous class warfare in and over federal economic policies." Wages haven't kept up with inflation. Benefits as a percent of income declined.
"Free markets" work best for those who control them. Others lose out. Growing numbers do entirely.
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