Affluent Americans overlook others’ struggle to access essential services like health care, a new poll shows.
Credit: MAX / SHUTTERSTOCK

A new report from the Federal Reserve highlights the bleak economic prospects for young Americans, concluding that millennials are in much worse financial shape than earlier generations (at the same age) in terms of their relative income and wealth. These findings are not encouraging for those concerned with the problem of growing inequality.

Despite the rise of populist anger in President Trump’s USA, inequality received little attention in 2018 from both major parties. But make no mistake, the story of early 21st century US is one of record inequality – and a growing divide between two groups: the haves and the have-nots. Forty percent of Americans hold negative financial wealth, averaging – $8,900 in assets, in the wealthiest country in the world, while another 20 percent hold just 2 percent of wealth. This means that 60 percent of the nation holds virtually no financial assets or holds negative assets in the wealthiest country in human history.

While […]