America's modern situation of income disparity is similar to that of the 1920's. Since the 1970's, after several decades of stability, U.S. income inequality has grown vastly. The U.S. have higher rates of income inequality than most nations because of the nation's less progressive spending on social services and increased support of free market capitalism. In the 1970's the rise of high inequality or the "Great Divergence"began. Studies show that income grew more unequal continuously except during 1990–91, 2001 and 2007. Until 2011, the Great Divergence was not a major political problem in America. However, the downward change of middle class income was. In 2009, the Barack Obama administration White House Middle Class Working Families
