Interview: Wealth gap in U.S. continues to widen due to insufficient action on economic inequality, says analyst

ISTANBUL, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States has not effectively tackled economic inequality at home, leading to a widening gap between the rich and poor in all aspects of life, according to a foreign policy analyst.

"Economic equality, whether measured through the gaps in income or wealth between richer and poorer households, continues to, unfortunately, widen," Gulru Gezer, a foreign policy analyst and former Turkish diplomat, told Xinhua in a recent interview. "And we also see that the middle class has been shrinking continuously over the past decades in the U.S."

Gezer said income and wealth inequality are higher in the United States than in most developed countries. Citing a recent statistic published by Economic Policy Institute, she noted a CEO in 2018 was paid 278 times what an average worker made. She also added that nearly 38 million people in the country live in poverty, according to the 2021 figures.

Education and the tax system in the country are also other realms of inequality, said the analyst. "If you want your child to receive proper education and have a university degree, you have to start saving actually before the child is born. And those who receive university degrees in the U.S. are less than 30 percent" of the population.

Several factors explain glaring U.S. inequality: the 2008 global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and tax reform, said Gezer. "All these problems, coupled with insufficient policies to address these challenges, have actually caused inequality in the U.S.," she added.

Gezer also said that Democrats and Republicans hold divergent perspectives on addressing inequality, leading to challenges in developing effective policies.