Depuis la fin des années 1970, les États-Unis ont connu un point tournant majeur: après cinq décennies d’amélioration de la distribution des revenus, la tendance est repartie en sens contraire. Depuis, cette distribution est de plus en plus inégalitaire. Les revenus de la classe moyenne stagnent alors que ceux du 1 % des familles aux revenus les plus élevés se sont fortement accrus, atteignant 24 % du revenu national ! Les travailleurs de la classe moyenne ne profitent plus de la hausse de la productivité nationale. Comment cela est-il arrivé ? Sous la plume de Timothy Noah, le magazine étatsunien Slate présente un dossier en dix parties sur les causes de ce que l’économiste Paul Krugman appelle la Grande Divergence. « This 30-year trend may represent the most significant change in American society in your lifetime and it’s not a change for the better, » écrit Timothy Noah.

Part 1
Introducing the Great Divergence: Trying to understand income inequality.

Part 2
The Usual Suspects Are Innocent: Neither race nor gender nor the breakdown of the American family created the Great Divergence.

Part 3
Did Immigration Create the Great Divergence? Why we can’t blame income inequality on the post-1965 immigration surge.

Part 4
Did Computers Create Inequality? No. The tech boom’s impact was no greater than that of previous technological upheavals during the 20th century.

Part 5
Can We Blame Income Inequality on Republicans? Yes, but for the very richest beneficiaries the trend has been bipartisan.

Part 6
The Great Divergence and the Death of Organized Labor: How has the decline of the union contributed to income inequality?

Part 7
The Great Divergence and International Trade: Trade didn’t create inequality, and then it did.

Part 8
The Stinking Rich and the Great Divergence: Executive compensation took off in the 1980s and 1990s. Is it to blame?

Part 9
How the Decline in K-12 Education Enriches College Graduates: When the workforce needed to be smarter, Americans got dumber.

Part 10
Why we can’t ignore growing income inequality: It undermines the ideal of e pluribus unum.

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