¹ Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Wealth of Nations: Selected edition edited by Kathryn Sutherland 408 (1993) (1776).

² Id at 413.

³ Id at 65-66

⁴ Smith, generally. See Introduction and Plan of the Work, 8-10.

⁵ The workings of the market economy and the free distribution of resources ensures that power will not accrue in the hands of a minority, and thus, prevents the development of centralization of power and extreme inequality. See Milton Frriedman, Capitalism and Freedom (1963).

⁶ Inequality is necessary to the business cycle. Textbook economics of supply and demand, a balancing of labor and capital, put faith in a natural ordering of the labor market. Under competition, an increased demand for labor will be matched by an increased supply of labor so that wages will not rise (or will rise only moderately). Thus the accummulation of capital, the apex of the capitalist effort, would be protected and maintained by self-regulating growth. See Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow, Economics Explained 31-32 (1982).

⁷ John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money 135, 372 (1936).

⁸ "Let the market do what the market is good at, and let the state do the rest." John Kenneth Galbraith, The Good Society: The Humane Agenda (1996).

⁹ The Physiocrats: Smith, Ricardo, Marx and Mill. Marx explains that systemic inequality is due to the instability of capitalism. The size of business firms will steadily increase as the consequence of recurrent crises inherent in a capitalist economy. With each crisis, small businesses are bought by surviving ones, creating an inevitable trend towards big business. The growth process of squeezes out small businesseses and reduces the social structure to two unequal classes: a small group of capitalist magnates and a large mass of property-less workers. Karl Marx, Capital, Vol I 929 (1876). See Michel Beaud, A History of Capitalism, 1500-1980 (1983); James O'connor , The Meaning of Crisis: a theoretical introduction (1987), Accumulation Crisis (1984).

¹⁰ The politico-economic truism that the rich and powerful mobilize state power to serve their own interests was formulated by Adam Smith who maintained that government is instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor: An Inquiry into the Nature and Wealth of Nations, selected edition edited by Kathryn Sutherland 413 (1993) (1776). For explanation of socially constructed markets see paul Baran & Paul M. Sweezy, Monopoly Capital: an Essay on the American Economic and social Order (1968); Noam Chomsky, Rollback Part I, Z Magazine, November 1997. This applies within a nation and between nations. In "unequal exchange" between countries, developed countries retain a relative monopoly of the most advanced means of production and the best educated workforce. This means that all "free trade" between the developed and the developing countries is constrained by the monopoly of developed countries. For Marx's view of inequality from the standpoint of mass economic phenomena, see Interview with Karl Marx Chicago Tribune January 5, 1979 and Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific Part III "English Political Economy" 612 (1880). For contemporary left critiques of social democracy, see Istvan Meszeros and James Petras.

¹¹ United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 1996 (1997); United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 1997 (1998).

¹² Id.

¹³ Year that the U.S. Bureau of the Census started collecting income data.

¹⁴ Doug Henwood, Who's Poor? 61 Left Business Observer 4, 5 (Dec. 1993). John Coder(technical director) of the U.S. Bureau of the Census computing data from the Luxembourg Income Study(LIS). Sweden has the fewest poor, ranks number one for having the most middle class, and has fewer grossly rich. LIS conclusions were confirmed in Income Distribution in OECD Countries a 1991 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development study of poverty and income polarization in 16 countries.

¹⁵ Arthur B. Kennickell, Martha Starr-McCluer, and Annika E. Sunden, Summary Description of 1995 Survey Results Family Finances in the U.S.: Recent Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances, Federal Reserve Bulletin 83, 1-24 (January 1997).

¹⁶ Id. See Edward N. Wolff, Top Heavy: A Study of the Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America (1995).

¹⁷ James K. Galbraith, Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay 147 (1998). Prior to the October 1929 stock market crash 1 percent of families controlled 59% of the national wealth. Harvey Wasserman, America Born & Reborn 140 (1983).

¹⁸ As measured by the Income Inequality Gini Index from 1913 through 1997. The Gini Index is a combination of U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey, Series P60-184, "Money Income of Households, Families, and Persons in the United States", (P60-200) Published March 1998, www.census.gov/hhes/www/income.html, and data from Eugene Smolensky and Robert Plotnick, Inequality and Poverty in the United States: 1900 to 1990, University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Public Policy, Working Paper #193 (July 8, 1992). The Income Inequality Gini chart uses Smolensky and Plotnick's numbers for the early years until Census figures began in 1947. A 1995 Twentieth Century Fund study shows that since the late 1970s wealth inequality in the U.S. has been on the rise.

¹⁹ See University of Texas Inequality Project at utip.gov.utexas.edu.

²⁰ Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, & John Schmitt, The State of Working America 1998-1999 8 (1999).

²¹ Id at 8-9.

²² Hunger Facts Domestic, Congressional Hunger Center (1997) www.ghn.org/chc/hungerf.html; Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy, Tufts University, 1993

²³ A Second Harvest study found that more than one-third (38.6 percent) of all emergency client households have at least one member who is working. Of those households, 49 percent contain someone who is working full-time, 47.8 percent include someone who is working part-time or has seasonal work. Two percent of all households include someone who is enrolled in JOBS or other government sponsored job-training program. Twelve percent of all emergency client households include someone who is retired. Twenty one percent of all emergency client households include someone who is disabled. Thirty-five percent of all emergency client households include someone who is unemployed www.secondharvest.org/websecha/d_ff1a1.htm.

²⁴ U.S.Census Bureau. Extended Measures of Well-Being: Meeting Basic Needs, 1995, P70-67.

²⁵ William Wolman & Anne Colamosca, the Judas Economy: The Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work 3 (1997).

²⁶ Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, & John Schmitt, The State of Working America 1998-1999 5 (1999).

²⁷ Id.

²⁸ Id.

²⁹ Id at 17. The initial decline was attributable to the recession that began in 1990, but the median continued to fall as the recovery began in 1991 and 1992. In 1994, median family income finally responded to overall growth. The authors state "the fact that it took eight years for median family income to reach its prerecession level is unprecendented in the postwar era. In every prior recovery, the income of the typical family had, by his point in time, far surpassed its level of the prior peak."

³⁰ Id at 6.

³¹ Id at 6. See also Business Week, annual report on executive pay, April 22, 1996; The Real Truth about the Economy, November 7, 1994.

³² William Wolman & Anne Colamosca, the Judas Economy: The Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work 48 (1997).

³³ Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, & John Schmitt, The State of Working America 1998-1999 22-24 (1999).

³⁴ Holly Sklar, The Dow races past most Americans www.mercurycenter.com/premium/opinion/columns/dow-comment8.htm. See Edward Wolff, Top Heavy: The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America and What Can Be Done About it (1996) and Edward N. Wolff, How the Pie is Sliced (1995).

³⁵ Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, & John Schmitt, The State of Working America 1998-1999 22 (1999).

³⁶ William Wolman & Anne Colamosca, the Judas Economy: The Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work 57 (1997).

³⁷ Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, & John Schmitt, The State of Working America 1998-1999 9 (1999).

³⁸ Id at 9. By 1995, almost one third of black households had zero or negative wealth.

³⁹ In 1999, the average poverty threshold for one person is $8,240; for a family of four, $16,700; for a family of eight persons, $27,980. Federal Register, Vol. 64, No. 52, March 18, 1999, pp. 13428-13430.

⁴⁰ 1997 Press Briefing on 1997 Income and Poverty Estimates Dr. Daniel H. Weinberg, Chief, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division U.S. Census Bureau September 24, 1998.

⁴¹ Id Chart 6.

⁴² Children's Defense Fund Press Release Big Economic Gains Lift Very Few Children out of Poverty September 29, 1997, www.childrensdefense.org/release092997.html.

⁴³ Id at www.childrensdefense.org/release092997.html. Childhood poverty rates are especially high for minorities, with 39.9 percent of black children and 40.3 percent of Hispanic children living in poverty in 1996.

⁴⁴ Extreme Child Poverty Rises By More Than 400,000 In One Year, New Analysis Shows; States Must Do Far More to Make Welfare Changes Safe and Effective for All Children at www.childrensdefense.org.

⁴⁵ Left Business Observer No. 86 5 (November 1998).

⁴⁶ Historical Poverty Tables - People, Table 18. Workers as a Proportion of All Poor People: 1978 to 1997, www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/hstpov18.html. This figure may be substantially low, see John E. Schwartz and Thomas J. Volgy, the Forgotten Americans: Thirty Million Working Poor in the Land of Opportunity (1992). The purchasing power of the current $5.15 minimum wage is $2.31 an hour below its purchasing power in 1968.

⁴⁷ Id.

⁴⁸ Id.

⁴⁹ Email correspondence with Doug Henwood, author of Wall Street (January 27, 1999).

⁵⁰ U.S. Bureau of the Census: Historical Poverty Tables - People, Table 14. Distribution of the Poor by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1966 to 1997, www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/hstpov14.html.

⁵¹ U.S. Bureau of the Census: Table 7. Poverty of People, by Sex: 1966 to 1997, www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/hstpov7.html

⁵² Special tabulation of data from the 1994 and 1995 Current Population Survey provided by John M. McNeil 29 Apr 1999.

⁵³ Louis Harris (1998) "The 1998 National Organization on Disability /Harris Survey of Americans with Disabilities."

⁵⁴ Louis Harris (1998) "The 1998 National Organization on Disability /Harris Survey of Americans with Disabilities." Census data confirms there has been no improvement in the economic well being of pwds. For example, in 1989, 28.9 percent of working age adults with disabilities lived in poverty; in 1994, the figure climbed slightly to 30.0 percent. U.S Department of Education, Disability Statistics Abstract No 21, 2 (May 1998). Poverty rates from the 1994 and 1995 Current Population Survey data are derived from unpublished tabulations provided by John M. McNeil, U.S. Bureau of the Census.

⁵⁵ 6,212,000 persons receive Supplemental Security Income and 4 million receive Social Security Disability Insurance. Social Security Administration Basic Facts About Social Security at www.ssa.gov/pubs/10080.html; 1998 SSI Annual Report at www.ssa.gov/OACT/SSIR/ssiTOC.html.

⁵⁶ Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, & John Schmitt, The State of Working America 1998-1999, Executive summary (1999).

⁵⁷ Id.

⁵⁸ For an explanation of decline of the labor power in relation to the decline in unions, see Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow, Economics Explained 189-191 (1998). For an economic analysis of the growing power of capital to generate inequality, see William Wolman & Anne Colamosca, the Judas Economy: The Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work 167-178 (1997).