How a New Aristocracy's Segregation Puts Stress on Society

Growing class division is destabilizing our society, argues author and philosopher Matthew Stewart in a provocative Atlantic magazine cover story. He says there's a group in between the top 0.1 percent and bottom 90 percent that plays an important role in running the economy, while setting up barriers that prevent most from realizing the American dream. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

Income Now the Big Divide in US
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: CONFLICT between rich and poor now eclipses racial strain and friction between immigrants and the native-born as the greatest source of tension in US society, according to a new survey.

About two-thirds of Americans now believe there are ''strong conflicts'' between rich and poor in the US, a survey by the Pew Research Centre found, a sign that the message of income inequality brandished by the Occupy Wall Street movement and pressed by Democrats may be seeping into the national consciousness.

The result was about a 50 per cent increase from a survey in 2009, when anger over the financial industry's role in the recession was festering. In that survey, 47 per cent of those polled said there were strong conflicts between classes. » | Sabrina Tavernise | Monday, January 16, 2012