This episode of Fault Lines just aired on Al Jazeera English on August 2, 2011. The view from outside the USA seems pretty clear and it isn’t something we should be proud of. Al Jazeera’s approach to the news puts our own media to shame - no hyperactive talking heads, no buzzwords and double-speak, no melodrama and hysteria This may be the only decent news source on the American airwaves. Ironic, isn’t it?

The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country’s income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it’s been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years.