Wealth gap an embarrassment of riches

Which of these regions is not like the others? 1. Jackson, Wyoming-Idaho. 2. Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Fla. 3. Key West, Fla. 4. Sebastian-Vero Beach, Fla. 5. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk.

Hint: It’s not a likely vacation destination. That’s right, it’s your own backyard. What brings these communities together is a dubious commonality. According to the Economic Policy Institute, they are the top five metropolitan regions in which the one-percenters have seized more wealth than the national peak of income inequality in 1928.

That year shouldn’t just ring bells, it should set off alarms. Just a few months later, the Stock Market crashed.

If the surviving cluster of Connecticut gubernatorial candidates have something in common, it’s that they all assess their state and conclude “the sky is falling.” But the richest among us apparently keep finding higher rungs on the ladder to climb while those at the bottom desperately seek steady footing.

When the top 1 percent in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area are earning $6,290,951 a year, it’s hard to swallow the reasoning of candidates that Connecticut’s richest residents are taking flight because they can’t afford to live here anymore. The lower 99 percent in the state pull in an average of nearly $68,000. This is the right time to pay attention to which candidates want to help the rich at the, ahem, expense of the poor. To join the one-percent club in the state, you must pull in $700,800, a pittance compared with the so-called Gold Coast. So even among one-percenters, there is a broad income gap.

Connecticut ranks third among states on a measurement of the widest wealth-gap ratios, behind New York and Florida.

Let’s face it, Connecticut has a high percentage of wealth because it remains a backyard playground to Wall Street. Wall Street is never going to change Zip codes, and our towns are not traditional suburbs of our cities.

The wealth gap narrowed in the wake of the 1929 crash with the rise of collective bargaining and minimum wages. It widened over recent decades with the rise of bloated CEO salaries. Remarkably, it is becoming even more extreme over the decades as racism and sexism in the workplace should, theoretically, be vanishing.

It’s hard to recognize the wealth gap when it’s before us every day. The United Way’s ALICE Report, which seeks to quantify the struggles of working families, put a spotlight on it. We recognize it in waves of news stories, ranging from health care issues to student seclusions in classrooms.

The authors of the report suggest closing the gaps will require reining in corporate profits and salaries for financial sector managers. Sadly, that is likely a folly. A more realistic focus is to bring more technology to low-income communities to nourish the next generation of workers.

And for all their differences, our gubernatorial candidates at least share a common recognition that Connecticut needs to create more, and better-paying, jobs.

There’s a job opening for the person who can do that.

But the richest among us apparently keep finding higher rungs on the ladder to climb while those at the bottom desperately seek steady footing.