Inequality – The Public Good Index

Date: 26 Feb 2018 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

1947-1979 change in real income of poorest 20 percent of population: 122 percent.

Of richest 20 percent: 99 percent.

Change of richest 1 percent: 39 percent.

Change of richest .01 percent: 29 percent.

1979-2016 change in real income of poorest 20 percent of population: 12 percent.

Of richest 20 percent: 60 percent.

Of richest 1 percent: 160 percent.

Of richest .01 percent: 331 percent.

 

Source: Growing Apart: A Political History of American Inequality by Colin Gordon, 2018.

……………

Share of total wealth owned by top 1 percent in 1989: 29 percent.

By bottom 90 percent: 33 percent.

Share of total wealth owned by top 1 percent in 2016: 38.6 percent.

Bottom 90 percent: 22 percent.

 

Source: In America the Top 1% Are 70% Richer Than the Bottom 90%, Investopedia, 2017.

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Portion of US households with zero or negative net worth: 19 percent.

Of Latino households: 27 percent.

Of black households: 30 percent.

New wealth of typical (median) wealth of white household in 2016: $151,800.

Of Latino household: $6,200.

Of black household: $4,300.

Minimum needed to be included in the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans in 1982 (in 2016 dollars): $189 million.

Today: $2 billion.

Source: Billionaire Bonanza 2017, Inequality.org, 2017.

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David Morris

David Morris is co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and currently ILSR's distinguished fellow. His five non-fiction books range from an analysis of Chilean development to the future of electric power to the transformation of cities and neighborhoods.  For 14 years he was a regular columnist for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. His essays on public policy have appeared in the New York TimesWall Street Journal, Washington PostSalonAlternetCommon Dreams, and the Huffington Post.