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The 99 percent: Income Inequality by the numbers

by: Jason Salzman

Fri Dec 30, 2011 at 09:17:23 AM MST


In all the hubbub of police marching in riot gear and protestors fleeing, chroniclers of the Occupy Movement sometimes forget to remind us what's at the heart of the matter for the Occupiers.

So, here's a crib sheet for anyone writing about Occupy in 2012.

Income Inequality:  Occupy by the Numbers

Percentage of our nation's wealth owned by the top 1% of earners:  33.8%

Percentage of U.S. wealth owned by the bottom 50% of Americans:  2.5%.

Percentage of investment assets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.) owned by top 1%:  over 50%

Percentage of investment assets owned by the bottom half:  0.5%

Jason Salzman :: The 99 percent: Income Inequality by the numbers
Percentage of the nation's personal debt owed by the top 1% in the US:  5%

Percentage of the nation's personal debt owed by the bottom 90% of Americans:  73%

Tax rate for highest income earners in 1944: 94%

Today: 35%

Between 1980 and 2005, percentage of all income gains that went to the top 1%:  80%

Percentage growth in real income for top 1% of earners since 1979:  275%

Percentage growth in real income for bottom 20% of earners since 1979:  18%

Last decade in U.S. history when the top 1% earned as high or higher a share of the national income as they do today (24%):  1920s

Last decade in which the super-elite (top .01% of earners) claimed a higher share:  Never

Percentage change in average CEO pay since 1990:  +300%

Percentage change in "production worker" pay since 1990: +4%

Last year when the purchasing power of U.S. federal minimum wage reached as low as it is today:  1955

Ratio of average worker's income to top CEO salaries in 1970:  1 to 38

Today:  1 to 1,723

Amount of nation's wealth controlled by the top 1% elite in Ancient Rome:  16%

Amount of nation's wealth controlled by the top 1% elite in U.S. today:  40%

Fraction of U.S. public who think there is too much power in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations in the U.S.: 3/4

Fraction of Americans who believed this in 1941:  3/5

Percentage of American millionaires who agree who agree that Occupy "protestors are making a good and valid point": 35%

Percentage of U.S. Congress who are millionaires:  47%

Percentage of U.S. Senators who are millionaires:  66%

Ratio of Americans living below the poverty line:  1 in 7

Rank of U.S. among rich nations in the percentage of children living in poverty:  2nd (21.9%)

In 2010 alone, percentage change in average income among the 24 million poorest families in U.S.:  -10 %

Rank of U.S. among developed nations of the world in income inequality: 1st

Follow Jason Salzman in Twitter @bigmediablog

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Thanks! It really is quite simple
Paul Krugman today is right to state John Maynard Keynes was correct during the depression prior to this:
Slashing government spending in a depressed economy depresses the economy further; austerity should wait until a strong recovery is well under way.

How did the geniuses serving us react:

The bottom line is that 2011 was a year in which our political elite obsessed over short-term deficits that aren't actually a problem and, in the process, made the real problem - a depressed economy and mass unemployment - worse.

Republicans have hijacked the economic discussion for so long, and Democrats have demurred in challenging their assumptions in the slightest (I'm speaking of Bennet and Udall here) that we may never re-democratize our economy in a way that improves the lives of All Americans, not just the lives of the richest, their chauffeurs and gardeners and chefs and valets.


Yes, the situation is sad and confounding
when you think about how, now, Dems are considered smart by many for attacking the government.

www.bigmedia.org

[ Parent ]
Thanks for posting this page, Jason.
It's a real wake-up call.

My opinions here do not reflect any organization or group with which I may be affiliated.  

[ Parent ]
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