« Tuesday Gumpagraph | Main | Past The Tipping Point »
December 18, 2007
| The Rich Get Richer Much, Much Faster | Economy |
We all know the US income distribution is obscenely skewed. But this is truly grotesque (NYT):
The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher.
Got that? In just two years, the increase in incomes of the top 1% was more than a third greater than the total incomes of the bottom 20%. Things haven't been this skewed since 1929, and we all know what happened then.
Posted by Jonathan at December 18, 2007 01:36 PM
