RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of Consumer Finances
JF RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
FD Russell Sage Foundation
SP 44
OP 59
DO 10.7758/RSF.2016.2.2.02
VO 2
IS 2
A1 Janet L. Yellen
YR 2016
UL http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/2/2/44.abstract
AB During the past several decades, the United States has experienced its most sustained rise in inequality since the nineteenth century. The U.S. distribution of income and wealth is now wider than in most other advanced countries. To provide a factual basis for further discussion, this paper reviews trends in income and wealth inequality over the past several decades, and then discusses four significant sources of economic opportunity in the United States: the resources available for children in their most formative years, affordable higher education, private business ownership, and inheritances.