Dark Bilious Vapors

the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. From The Enterprise Ethics Weblog (alas, no link because it's a nonstandard URL Greymatter can't parse):

The income gap in the US is widening, rather than shrinking and one columnist for CBS "Marketwatch" says it's time for an "orange alert,"

Thomas Kostigen puts the matter into perspective:

While the richest one percent of the U.S. population saw its financial wealth grow 109 percent from 1983 to 2001, the bottom two-fifths watched as its wealth fell 46 percent.

Alarming? You bet. And here's why: The number of Americans without health insurance climbed 33 percent during the 1990's, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The biggest indicator of a healthy society -- average life expectancy -- has dropped. People in the U.S. now don't live even as long as people in Costa Rica. Meanwhile the U.S. infant mortality rate has risen, so much so Cuba has a better success rate of bringing healthy children into the world.

Len on 06.02.04 @ 12:31 PM CST