“It’s like stealing from the rich,” said economics Professor Mark Frank, describing of the most recent economic proposal to redistribute wealth in America.
Frank, an economics and international professor instructor at Sam Houston State University, delivered a seminar on Friday, Nov. 7. The lecture was called “A New State-Level Panel of Income Inequality Measures over the Period 1916-2005.” It described the evolution of income inequality in the United States over the past century. The lecture was part of the Economics Brown Bag Seminar Series
The seminar addressed a number of issues regarding the economy. Frank said that the levels of inequality that exist today can be compared with the levels during the Great Depression. Frank’s research compared the shape of the U.S. economy over the last century to a “U.”
The first peak was on the “eve of the Great Depression and again today during the new millennium,” Frank said. After World War II, there was much less variation in economics among class groups, he said.
Since then, economic growth has been in the upper 10 percent of the population. This leaves the rest of the population bearing the brunt of the economic woes that currently afflict most Americans, he said.
Frank said that inequality lowers growth. The current exaggerated state of inequality has lowered the economic growth for an overwhelming 90 percent of the country’s population. As a whole, Americans are generally not doing well in terms of financial situations. However, Frank’s research has implied that inequality is also regional in the America.
“The Northeast is the most unequal area in the United States,” said Frank as he pointed to a map which indicated darkened states that are marked heavily — an implication of income inequality.
Frank described the consequences of this research by implying that Americans are facing one of the most difficult economic periods . The consequences of such economic turmoil can be felt across the nation.