Wal-Martization Of The U.S. Economy

Do planners have any responsibility for maintaining a fair distribution of income in the U.S.?

1 minute read

January 6, 2004, 8:00 AM PST

"America was once a place of substantial intergenerational mobility: Sons often did much better than their fathers... The distribution of income in the United States has gone right back to Gilded Age levels of inequality... Over the past generation upward mobility has fallen drastically. Very few children of the lower class are making their way to even moderate affluence... As a general rule, once they've reached their 30s, people don't move up and down the income ladder very much... Business Week attributes this to the 'Wal-Martization' of the economy, the proliferation of dead-end, low-wage jobs and the disappearance of jobs that provide entry to the middle class."

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism

FULL STORY: The Death of Horatio Alger

Monday, January 5, 2004 in The Nation

Social / Demographics United States

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