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 Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Salon, Alternet, Common Dreams, and the Huffington Post.