Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Inequality in America Revisited
I wrote a series of posts on inequality in the U.S. a few years ago [Oct. 21-24].
A new report by David Cay Johnston shows that the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow, but the hyper-rich are leaving behind even those considered very well off. The following chart sums up the findings:
Some of the other findings:
It doesn't take a nuanced analysis of the chart above to see what brought the last inequality boom back to earth. Now the Bu$h tax-cuts and deregulation are driving us straight toward a collapse. The hyper-wealthy will survive just fine; the other 95% may not be so lucky.
A new report by David Cay Johnston shows that the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow, but the hyper-rich are leaving behind even those considered very well off. The following chart sums up the findings:
Some of the other findings:
- The top 0.1 percent of income earners includes about 145,000 taxpayers, each with at least $1.6 million in income and often much more. The average income for the top 0.1 percent was $3 million in 2002, the latest year for which averages are available.
- The share of the nation's income earned by those in this uppermost category has more than doubled since 1980, to 7.4 percent in 2002. The share of income earned by the rest of the top 10 percent rose far less, and the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell.
- Although Bush said last October that most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans, 53 percent will go to people with incomes in the top 10 percent over the first 15 years of the cuts, and more than 15 percent will go just to the top 0.1 percent, those 145,000 taxpayers.
- Under the Bush tax cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes - a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the last year for which the government will release such data - now pay income, Medicare and Social Security taxes amounting to virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000.
- Those earning more than $10 million a year now pay a lesser share of their income in these taxes than those making $100,000 to $200,000.
It doesn't take a nuanced analysis of the chart above to see what brought the last inequality boom back to earth. Now the Bu$h tax-cuts and deregulation are driving us straight toward a collapse. The hyper-wealthy will survive just fine; the other 95% may not be so lucky.
Blog yer own: