THE AMERICAN DREAM

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

FDR, Second Inaugural Address, Wednesday, January 20, 1937
http://aol1.infoplease.com/t/hist/inaugural/38.html

It's better to be poor in Norway than in the US
By David R. Francis
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0414/p17s02-cogn.html?ref=aol
…the poorest 18 percent of Canadians remain better off, on average, than the poorest 18 percent of Americans.
The contrast is even starker in oil-rich Norway, where the poorest 38 percent of the people fare better, on average, than the poorest 38 percent of Americans, despite a lower median per capita GDP.
The reason? America's woefully unequal distribution of income. By 2011, heirs to the richest 600 or so estates would no longer owe any inheritance taxes either. The US has the worst distribution of income of any well-to-do country. In a list of 30 prosperous nations, including smaller economies such as Taiwan and Israel, only Russia and Mexico have a greater maldistribution of income than the US.