“Is Democracy Dying?” is a series of essays in Foreign Affairs (May/June, 2018). They discuss the chances for democracy’s continuance, especially in the United States.

Why is the United States, for generations the world’s poster child for democracy, not immune from danger? One answer—many believe the main answer—is this country’s growing inequality.

An article in the series by Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist, compares today’s wages with wages at General Motors fifty years ago when “ . . . workers earned an average of around $30 an hour in 2016 dollars. Today, the country’s largest employer is Walmart, which in 2016 paid around $8 an hour.” (“The Age of Insecurity; Can Democracy Save Itself?”)

The cards are stacked against the working and middle classes, as we increasingly reward the more well-off. The recently passed tax legislation cuts taxes for the wealthy. This is predicted to increase the national debt and lead to calls for scaling back or abolishing programs for the less well-off, like affordable medical care or even social security, the pension system for the elderly.

Growing inequality would seem to demand, first of all, that we distribute the tax burden, not give more tax breaks to the wealthy.

As Inglehart writes, quoting overwhelming conclusions from research: “. . . extreme inequality is incompatible with democracy.”