 |
|
Email this page
| |
Delve
deeper into inequality with Greed
and Good,
an American Library Association “outstanding title of the
year” (Choice, January 2006)
that explores the impact of our growing divide — and
antidotes to it. The full text now appears free
online. |
|
Inequality
by the Numbers |
| Just how unequal has
the United States become? We chart that question, from
a variety of different angles, below. For more detail
on the numbers and the sources for all
these charts, please
check here. |
| Wealth
in the United States: How Concentrated? |
 |
Try
visualizing wealth in the United States
as a three-piece pie, with one piece going to the top
1 percent, one to the next richest 9 percent,
and one to everyone else. In 2004, America's top 1
percent held over $2.5 trillion more in net worth than
the entire bottom
90 percent, according to Federal Reserve data
supplemented by the annual Forbes 400
list. |
| America's
Income Distribution: Quite a Bit Top-Heavy, Too |
| Income — what
people take in on an annual basis — also tilts
toward the top in today's United States. In 2004, the
nation's top 1 percent raked in more income
than the bottom 40 percent,
Congressional Budget Office research released
in December 2006 indicates. |
|
| So What's New? Don't
the Rich Always Get Richer? |
|
|
Actually, no. A century
ago, income in America skewed
steeply toward the top, but in the mid
20th century
the
United States became significantly more equal, as data
from economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty show
here, before turning back toward greater inequality. Note: Saez and Piketty
crunch their data from tax records. The CBO researchers
above add in-kind income
sources, everything
from
job-paid health insurance premiums to food stamps.
That's why calculations of income
shares can vary. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
