A recent Census Bureau report brought a flurry of press attention to the widening gap between rich and poor. The gap in New York City is widening -- and is now bigger than in India, noted the New York Daily News. Indeed, most analysts agree incomes of the ery rich have been pulling away from all others in recent decades. The average pretax income for the bottom 90 percent of households is almost $900 below what it was in 1979, while the average pretax income for the top 1 percent is $700,000 higher. Havinga wealthy class with very large amounts of disposable money is valuable -- not harmful -- to society, some argue. But others say the recent winner-take-all economy helped trigger the massive recession, leaving most people with stagnant incomes. Meanwhile, Rpublicans argue that Bush-era tax cuts on top earnings should be extended to stimulate the economy, while many Democrats back extensions only for lower earners.

Marcia Clemmitt is a veteran social-policy reporter who joined CQ Researcher after serving as editor in chief of Medicine and Health, a Washington-based industry newsletter, and staff writer for The Scientist. She has also been a high school math and physics teacher. She holds a bachelor's degree in arts and sciences from St. Johns College, Annapolis, and a masters degree in English from Georgetown University.