Inequality and the Internet

Berkeley

THE conclusion that America has become vastly more unequal over the past 35 years is beyond doubt. Since 1979, the pattern has been clear: The richer you were, the far richer you have become. And if you were poor, you probably stayed poor.

But the same period has also been an era of rapid technological change. The United States is undergoing a third Industrial Revolution, an Information Age upheaval that could be as momentous as its predecessors, which transformed society through the introduction of steam, iron, cotton and machinery, and then internal combustion, electricity and steel.