The 1 Percent’s Problem - Joseph E. Stiglitz - VanityFair

[Alcibiades]

22. Income inequality is what's dragging this economy down

It's why the recovery has been so slow: the middle class, which ought to be the engine of economic growth, simply does not have enough gas in the tank to turn around after a recession, especially after 30 years of stagnating wages that have only been compensated for by debt (which does not work in the long run) and by women working more hours outside the home.

Progressives and Democrats have done a poor job of telling this story.

"It is no accident that the periods in which the broadest cross sections of Americans have reported higher net incomes—when inequality has been reduced, partly as a result of progressive taxation—have been the periods in which the U.S. economy has grown the fastest."

It is a compelling story, mainly because it's true. If you contrast the facts of the case with the Republican "argument," a univariate analysis wherein the top marginal tax rate wholly determines economic growth, a story already falsified by the laboratory of history, it could help to get us back on track to creating a new majority Democratic coalition, the likes of which we have not seen since the Johnson administration.