New Data: Top 1% Income Has Grown 100 X Faster Than Bottom 50%, Since 1970
'Staggering' New Data Shows Income of Top 1% Has Grown 100 Times Faster Than Bottom 50% Since 1970. "The bulk of a generation of economic growth has been captured and concentrated in a few hands, and many people have barely seen any of it." Common Dreams, Dec. 9, 2019.
New data released Monday explains the numbers behind Sen. Bernie Sanders' often-cited statistic that the three richest Americans hold more wealth than the 160 million people who make up the bottom 50% of the population.
Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent published what he called "stunning" findings from Stanford University economist Gabriel Zucman, showing how both an explosion in annual earnings by the rich and an increasingly regressive tax structure have combined to allow the top 1% of Americans' wealth to triple over the past five decades.
Meanwhile, working people are taking home just $8,000 more per year than they did in 1970. In what Sargent called "the triumph of the rich, which is one of the defining stories of our time," the richer a household is, the more its take-home wealth has grown in the past 50 years.
New data:
For top 1%, average income has risen by $800,000 since 1970.
For top 0.1%, it has risen by $4 million.
For top .01%, it has risen $20 million.
Bottom 50%? $8,000.
All this is *after taxes and transfers.*
The top 1% of earners make an average of more than $1 million per year after accounting for taxes they pay, a 50-year increase of more than $800,000100 times the growth rate of the bottom 50%. The wealth of the top .1% is five times larger than it was in 1970, while that of the top .01% is seven times larger, at over $24 million in 2018.
Zucman and fellow economist Emmanuel Saez, his co-author of the new book "The Triumph of Injustice," provided a chart showing how each group of earners' take-home pay has changed since 1970. The wealthiest Americans' assets skyrocketed by millions of dollars even in the first decade of the 21st centurywhen people in the bottom 50% saw their average take-home income decrease...
More, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/09/staggering-new-data-shows-income-top-1-has-grown-100-times-faster-bottom-50-1970
PSPS
(13,512 posts)Gee, let's see. What event happened around 1980 that could have caused this. Hmmm. Such a mystery. Maybe it's related to these other things that happened "mysteriously" around 1980.
- Two incomes required to even consider the possibility of comfortably supporting a household
- Income tax on the wealthy cut by 2/3
- Homeless population explodes
- US goes from largest creditor nation to largest debtor nation
Such a "mystery" how all of these came to pass "around 1980." Such a puzzle. Will we ever figure it out? Was it gawd? Should I be a-scared?
appalachiablue
(41,052 posts)In 1980 I was in DC when that event happened, a shocker that's definitely lasted..
Cicada
(4,533 posts)1. Pay is more than take home pay. When an employer must pay $12000 more for an employees health insurance, that $12000 pay increase is not shown in take home pay.
2. Income also includes government benefits such as food stamps, earned income tax credit, section 8 rent subsidies. The amount has gone up some over time.
3. Zucman uses a non standard way to measure high income which some economists disagree with.
But the big picture is still clear. Elizabeth Warren, and Donald Trump, were right when they said the system is rigged. But Warren, unlike Trump, has proposals to fix it.
appalachiablue
(41,052 posts)by some no doubt.
Cicada
(4,533 posts)His early work, hidden wealth of nations, was enough by itself to make him a hero. But that was just the beginning. His work is going to significantly change the world for the better.
appalachiablue
(41,052 posts)Warren and Piketty. I didn't know he was French and TP's student until I looked up his info. Bright with a long career ahead to do good things.
Trailer for the new film, 'Capital in the 20th Century,' posted here in Video or Movies.
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