미국의 불평등 심화의 배경과 함의

국문 초록 (Abstract)

본 연구의 목적은 미국에서 점증하고 있는 소득 및 부의 불평등 심화에 초점을 맞추고 그것의 배경을 추적하는 것이다. 미국에서의 소득 및 부의 불평등 심화는 곧 미국 중산층의 몰락을 의미하는 바, 이 연구의 목적은 미국 중산층 몰락의 기제, 즉 그 역동적 과정을 규명하는 것과 동일하다. 이 논문에서는 미국 불평등 심화(중산층 몰락)의 배경으로 소득 상위 1%, 특히 대기업CEO들의 가파른 소득 약진, 신자유주의의 파고, 친대기업적 규제완화를 우선 거론했다. 덧붙여 부자감세 및 불공정한 세법, 월가의 규제 철폐로 인한 금융부분의 비대(금융화), 제조업의 붕괴, 금융위기 발발 후 정부가 취한 일련의 경기부양책인 구제금융 및 양적완화, 노조의 퇴조 등을 미국 중산층 몰락의 배경으로 지목했다. 끝으로 이 연구에서는 이제껏 상향이동의 전통적 수단으로 간주되던 교육이 오히려 계층 대물림의 수단으로 변질되어 중산층 몰락에 큰 역할을 담당하고 있음도 지적하였다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the rapid increase of income and wealth inequalities in the U.S. in recent times and to seek the reasons why such inequalities have evolved. Since the deepening of inequalities of income and wealth in the U.S. imply directly to the collapse of the middle class, put differently, the aim of the paper can be represented as examining the mechanism of the fall of the middle class. This paper points out the backgrounds of such inequalities on the upper one percent of the income, especially CEO of large enterprises and their rapid income growth, the great wave of Neo-liberalism, and corporate-friendly deregulation of policies. In addition, the paper also indicates that the backgrounds for the collapse of the middles class are on the tax break for the rich and unfair tax laws, de regulations of the Wall Street which lead to the financialization along with the bail out and QEs after the financial crisis, the collapse of the manufacturing, and the weakening of the unions. Lastly, the paper addresses that the traditional key role of education as the ladder for social mobility has been deteriorated, rather it plays the conduit for passing on the parental social and economic classes directly to next generations.

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