Instability Implications of Increasing Inequality

This study focuses on the implications of inequality trends in the U.S., Canada and Mexico over the last thirty years, and reveals that Mexico is the only part of North America where the middle class has been gaining from growth. Mexico’s middle class has benefited from urbanization, greater female employment, improved education and better social programs. Meanwhile, the combination of stagnant real incomes for most people and a rapid rise of the incomes of the richest 1% has produced a steadily increasing income inequality in both Canada and the U.S.