Category: Weatlh and Income Distribution
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The Middle Class is Disappearing … Into the Upper Class
U.S. Census Bureau recently released time-series data on household income. All data in the following chart is pegged to 2010 dollars, which is adjusted for inflation – a dollar in 1970 buys the same as a dollar in 2020. The Census Bureau divides the income distribution into nine segments and three broader categories: Poor: $0…
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How to Increase Intergenerational Mobility
Intergenerational mobility is low in the US. Economist Timothy Taylor discusses findings from a recent study investigating how we might make improvements: Intergenerational Mobility and Neighborhood Effects. The unique study incorporates 20.5 million Americans and enables them to analyze down to the city block level. The study determined that neighborhood (.5 mile radius around…
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Billionaires do NOT pay an overall tax rate lower than the bottom 50%.
Two months ago, the New York Times uncritically ran an article claiming billionaires pay lower tax rates than the bottom half of American earners. (I see this and related pieces circulated by my progressive friends.) The unsubstantiated and yet-to-be-reviewed data came from economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, a tease to promote their soon-to-be-released book.…
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Half of Global Wealth Owned by 62 People: How Oxfam Lies While Telling the Truth
Once again, Oxfam is circulating that 62 people have as much wealth as the bottom half of the world's population. Think about that for a moment. When you read that, what do you think that means? Particularly, what is wealth? Many people will interpret "wealth" as financial assets. Many others realize wealth includes the value…
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Global Inequality in Decline
This chart comes from Timothy Taylor's post, The Shifting World Distribution of Income. One notable thing I saw was that median annual income (measured in purchasing power parity dollars) doubled from 2003 to 2013. This chart suggests it will double again within about 20 years. Of course, the most obvious change is the collapse of…
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How GDP shares have shifted across the world since 1000 AD
Business Insider: How GDP shares have shifted across the world since 1000 AD Interesting graph.
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Trends in Extreme Poverty (Spoiler: The Poor Are Not Getting Poorer)
Globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty ($1.25 a day) is shrinking. The global poor are not getting poorer. The world population grew from 4.5 billion people in 1981 to 6.9 billion in 2010 – a 60% increase. The percentage of people living in extreme poverty in developing nations dropped from over 50%…