Thomas Blanchet, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman of the Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley shares real-time data with graphs to show income & wealth inequality in the U.S.
Income Inequality: Controlling for price inflation, the average annual disposable income per adult of top 0.01% in the United States -over the period 1976-2022, increased 604%, and the average income for the bottom 50% grew 53%.
National income is similar to GDP and a better indicator of income earned by US residents, the authors say. One can adjust the real-time graph options: what the y-axis displays, the definition of income, the statistical unit, the data frequency, and the time range. You can also select groups. All dollar figures are annualized and adjusted for price inflation to March 2022 dollars:
Wealth Inequality: As for the average real wealth of adults (20+ year) in % since the base year 1976 to-date, the authors show that the top 0.01% pct.’s wealth grew 1564 per cent, and that of the bottom 50% over the same period increased 352%.
More here from the authors >
PS: According to ‘millionaire socialist’ Sen. Bernie Sanders, “Today, the 10 richest people in the world own more wealth than the bottom 37% — 3.1 billion people. We need a national and global economy that works for all, not just the few…Global oligarchy is on the rise. Between 1995 and 2021, the top 1% captured 38% of the increase in global wealth, while the bottom 50% captured 2%. The share of wealth owned by the global top 0.1% rose from 7% to 11%…A multi-billionaire with a super yacht should not pay less in taxes than a firefighter.”
