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To monitor the evolving American consumer market, Proctor & Gamble executives study the Gini index, a widely accepted measure of income inequality that ranges from zero, when everyone earns the same amount, to one, when all income goes to only one person. In 2009, the most recent calculation available, the Gini coefficient totaled 0.468, a 20% rise in income disparity over the past 40 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
‘We now have a Gini index similar to the Philippines and Mexico — you’d never have imagined that,’ says Phyllis Jackson, P&G’s vice president of consumer market knowledge for North America. ‘I don’t think we’ve typically thought about America as a country with big income gaps to this extent.’
“As Middle Class Shrinks, P&G Aims High and Low.” (paywall)
A basic primer on neoliberalism. A basic thing the Occupy Wall Street folks should be screaming about.
(via marathonpacks)
In order to read the full article, you have to like Google its title or something and then click through from Google. It’s worth the effort because, again, it’s super interesting to think about the new two-tiered America. (Ie, a top tier with mostly all the money and a bottom tier that’s statistically large but has virtually none of the money.) Especially when you consider that (maybe) the big distributors of culture are going to be driven by the top tier, but by virtue of their business model, be taken in mostly by the bottom tier. How is advertising and consumer culture going to cope with the disappearance of a middle class to project its desires onto? We’ve gone through recession rap, but I think there’s going to be a large field for recession everything for the next few decades.
