Jared Bernstein Gap Quotations

These results reveal the breadth of the unprecedented gap between the pace of overall economic progress and the returns to working people.

It's unprecedented. There is a large and growing gap between how the economy is performing and the living standards of the people stoking the engine.

A fundamental principle of our economic system is that the benefits of economic growth will flow to those responsible for their creation. When how fast your income grows depends on your position in the income scale, this principle is violated. In that sense, today's unprecedented gap between the growth of the typical family's income and productivity is our most pressing economic problem.

It's a pretty classic story of an economy that's leaving middle-income households behind. The gap between how this economy's doing and the living standards of the median family has never been larger.

However, a far larger gap exists when we compare net worth: minorities' net worth was about 27 percent of whites, about half the size of the income ratio.