Tag: United States

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The once-lush delta where the Colorado River used to spill out into the Sea of Cortez is now a dry sandy landscape in Mexico where “America's hardest-working river” is too tired to finish the job. Climate change, urban demand and a burgeoning energy industry are literally tapping the Colorado River to death.

Income inequality — the difference between what the rich earn and what everyone else earns — is higher in the United States than in developed countries the world over. Moving against the trend established in the rest of developed societies, the gap between the rich and the rest of Americans has widened over the past 30 years. It has also grown wider during the recession, contrary to most predictions. Since the 1990s, the richest of the rich have pulled away from the merely wealthy, while the recession has made more and more Americans poor.