The Great Divider: Ed, Class and Inequality

Public debates about income inequality have focused on the gaps in income between the very top and the rest of the public, but, as David Autor writes in a recent article for Science, the dramatic growth in the earnings premium for college graduates is “a component of rising inequality that is arguably even more consequential” for the average American than the rising incomes among the top 1%. Unfortunately, “the 31%” doesn’t have quite the same ring as “the 1%”. (Check out the whole issue of Science, devoted to issues of inequality and mobility).