Income inequality reached a record high in 2009, according to
the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The Associated
Press reports: The income gap between the richest and poorest
Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young
adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in
the recession. The top-earning 20 percent of Americans — those
making more than $100,000 each year — received 49.4 percent of
all income generated in the United States, compared with the 3.4
percent earned by those below the poverty line, according to
newly released census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an
increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in
1968. A different measure, the international Gini index, found
United States income inequality at its highest level since the
Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967. The
United States also has the greatest disparity among Western
industrialized nations. At the top, the wealthiest 5 percent of
Americans, who earn more t