One major cause of the French Revolution was the extreme contrast between the few rich and the many poor. Some people feel that the gap between the rich and poor in the United States is similar.
Work with a team to create a graph showing the distribution of wealth in the United States today. Use the Internet or magazines to research the topic. Look for statistics that answer such questions as, What percentages of the population own various proportions of the country’s wealth? What percentage of individuals live at or below the poverty line? How much is the wealthiest person in the United States worth?
Wealth Distribution Statistics http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org / wealth_distribution1999.html
United Nations Development Program statistics on the wealthiest and poorest individuals in the world.
Unequal Income Distribution in the United States http://factfinder.census.gov / servlet / QTTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF4_U_QTP33&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=D&-_lang=en&-_caller=bfri
Chart created by the U.S. Census Bureau showing the distribution of wealth in the United States.
Identifying Need: Poverty http://www.census.gov / population / pop-profile / 1999 / chap13.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau report on poverty in the United States.
Wealth Inequality in America