15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

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15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

Gus Lubin | Nov. 27, 2010, 5:37 AM | 735,047 | 122

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The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Clich?, sure, but it's more true than at any time since the Gilded Age.

While politicians gloat about our "recovery," our poor are getting poorer, our average wages are still falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low.

But, yes, if you're in that top 1%, life in America is grand.

Image:

The gap between the top 0.01% and everyone else hasn't been this big since the Roaring Twenties

This chart shows average income of the top 1% as a multiple of average income of the bottom 90% (via The Nation).



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15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

Click here for bigger chart > Half of America owns 2.5% of country's wealth. The top 1% owns a third of it.

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Source: Institute for Policy Studies

Half of America owns only 0.5% of America's stocks and bonds. The top 1% owns more than 50%!

Source: Institute for Policy Studies



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15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

Look how the wealth gap grown in the past 20 years!

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Source: Professor G. William Domhoff

The last two decades were great...if you were a CEO or business owner or banker or trader. Not if you were anyone else.



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15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

Real average earnings have not increased in 50 years. That's HALF A CENTURY!

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And savings rates have sunk, as Americans borrow money to keep up (though they're rising now)



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15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

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Despite the myth of social mobility, poor Americans have a SLIM CHANCE of rising to the upper middle class

Source: NBER

Republican tax cuts significantly increased the wealth gap

Source: NYT



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