Virginia's Rising Income Gap

October 12, 2011

Yesterday, the nonpartisan Commonwealth Institute released a report revealing the wealth gap between rich and poor in Virginia is the highest in 30 years, and the second largest in the nation.

The Progressive Point: America was founded as a nation that fostered equality of opportunity and rewarded hard work. But these days, most Americans are working harder than ever just to get by. The American Dream is slipping away while folks try to play by rules that have been rigged by the wealthy. Our Founding Fathers understood the dangers posed by the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. We must return to the principles that made this country great or risk establishing a permanent underclass in America.

The Giants of American History Are On Our Side:

"The day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. When that day comes, we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation." - President James Madison

"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed." - President Abraham Lincoln

"We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." - Justice Louis Brandeis

Tweet it : Wealth inequality in VA up and rising. Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer's not an American value http://bit.ly/qg2yek via @ProgressVA

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