Financial flows.

Editor,

The chart titled "How Americans Spend Their Money" that accompanied "You Are What You Spend" by W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm (2/20/08) reveals all a reader needs to know about the distribution of wealth in today's American economy.

The right-hand graph, "financial flows," illustrates how dramatically capital accumulation by the top 20% of American families has left that of the remaining 80% in the dust. We do live in a capitalist society as the authors state, and that graph shows how fast the economic chances of the rich are increasing relative to the visibly diminishing chances of the poor and the virtually flat chances of what used to be the American middle class.

The authors are correct also in looking to corporate globalization -- so-called "free" trade -- to explain this gap, because "free" trade really isn't trade at all. It is unregulated capital flows across international borders, and it is designed not to benefit workers, who are clearly in a world-wide race to the bottom as corporations seek ever cheaper labor, but to maximize the returns of international investors. That graph of "financial flows" shows just how well that scam is working for the rich.