The growing concentration of income and wealth in the hands of a few isn’t bad just for those losing ground but could jeopardize the country’s future if unchecked, warns Robert Reich, a former labor secretary in the Clinton administration.

“It is a threat to our way of life,” Reich told attendees Friday at the Colorado Fiscal Institute’s 2014 Fiscal Forum at the History Colorado Center.

Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, is a leading voice calling attention to income inequality — a chorus that recently added President Barack Obama and Pope Francis.

Reich, who has released a documentary called “Inequality for All,” said 95 percent of economic gains since the “so-called” recovery started in 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent by net worth. He criticized an anemic jobs report Friday that showed only 74,000 jobs added in December and the share of working adults at a 30-year low.

The larger trend of stagnating wages, however, has been underway since the late 1970s, he said. In the ’80s, women entered the workforce in large numbers to boost household incomes. In the ’90s, workers took on more hours, and by the early 2000s households borrowed heavily to keep pace.

People have run out of coping mechanisms, Reich said, and the country needs to tackle the problem. His antidotes include raising the minimum wage, boosting public spending on education and infrastructure and raising taxes on the highest earners.

Lawson Bader, president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, doesn’t disagree that the U.S. economy is performing at a subpar level. But he said Reich’s answers reflect a mechanistic view that government can turn knobs and dials and fix things.

“It is a distraction from the real question of how do we have a viable and dynamic economy,” he said, arguing that the answer involves removing uncertainty and excess regulation.

Reich counters that the U.S. economy, where 70 percent of activity is tied to consumer spending, can’t achieve its potential unless more money finds its way into the hands of average consumers.

“The middle class and the poor are the job creators, not the people at the top,” he said. “We need to reframe the debate.”

Greater inequality results in a more polarized political climate, he said, and more scapegoating. Left unchecked, a frustrated populace will be more susceptible to demagogues on both the right and the left.

“Business leaders and the top 1 to 5 percent have as much at stake,” he said of rising income inequality.

Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/aldosvaldi