Issues - Growing Divide

As a phenomenally wealthy individual, Warren Buffett feels "coddled" by the U.S. government, which has for decades asked him to pay less and less into public coffers. His recent New York Times op-ed was a brazen call for Congress to raise taxes on richest people in the U.S. Buffett's not-so-wild sentiment received due support from members of UFE's Responsible Wealth project (RW).

Read UFE's tax fact sheet for the Rebuild the Dream coalition, led by MoveOn.org in partnership with more than 80 organizations and over 160,000 individuals committed to advancing one simple ideal: liberty and justice for all. The coalition's "Contract for the American Dream" includes 10 critical steps for getting the economy back on track. This fact sheet details one of those steps.

When it comes to telling the story of our dire economy, it seems Republican politicians have lifted their strategy from the Wizard of Oz rather than a political playbook. But rather than accept the line that poor people are to blame for our mounting federal deficit, we should pull back the curtain on the real culprits.

Income inequality in the United States has reached levels more severe than over 70% of the rest of the world. The devastating results of such inequality involve life expectancy, incarceration rates, obesity, and much more. Find out what else inequality leads to and how the U.S. compares internationally.