Social inequalities are escalating in the USA. US retail chain store data for December reveal that luxury outlets saw an 8.1 per cent rise in sales from the previous year: discount stores catering to America’s poorer people rose just 1.2 per cent.
The number of people on food stamps (worth £90 a month) has reached 43.2 million, 14 per cent of the population. Visits to soup kitchens are up 24 per cent. The employment rate for working-age men over 20 dropped to 73.6 per cent, the lowest since the data series began in 1948.