Some facts/statistics about income and wealth inequality in America... (wages, regime)

[AllenSJC]

Income Inequality | Inequality.org

Divisions by race:

Between 2005 and 2009, the median net worth of Hispanic households dropped by 66 percent and that of black households fell by 53 percent, according to the report. In contrast, the median net worth of white households dropped by only 16 percent.

Wealth gap widens between whites, minorities, report says - The Washington Post




Wealth And Inequality In America

Income gap has grown as well:

The base pay of employees whose income was above the Social Security wage cutoff -- now $106,800 -- increased 78 percent, or by almost $1 trillion, from 2002 to 2007. During the same period, income for workers increased just 24 percent.

The rich get richer: Income and wealth gap grows over the past decade - DailyFinance

Today the top 1% of households receives more pretax income than the bottom 40%. And the distribution of wealth is even more lopsided. The top 1% of households owns nearly 40% of total household wealth -- more than the bottom 90% of households combined -- and earns half of all capital income. Income and wealth are more unevenly distributed among Americans than at any time since the Jazz Age of the 1920s. On measures of income and wealth inequality, the U.S. tops the charts among the advanced industrial nations.

How Bush Widened The Wealth Gap

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Society | Vanity Fair


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These facts and stats speak for themselves.

[wutitiz]

The numbers do not necessarily speak for themselves. There is the question of why. According to this there is no consensus among economists:
ROBERT SAMUELSON: Inequality emerges as new political fault line

Originally Posted by Samuelson

contributions.
There are many theories about why inequality has increased, though no consensus: new technologies reward the highly skilled; globalization depresses factory wages; eroded union power does the same; employer-paid health insurance squeezes take-home pay; a “winner-take-all” society confers huge rewards on an elite of celebrities, sports stars and business leaders.

I'm guessing that the year 1979 was chosen as the dividing line because it yielded the most dramatic contrast. The obvious big change around that time was that China had started its economic revolution.