Income and wealth in the US

Wealth is net worth.

Source: Arthur B. Kennickell, “Ponds and Streams: Wealth and Income in the U.S., 1989 to 2007,” Federal Reserve Board Working Paper, January 7, 2009, Figure A3a, p. 63.



Source: Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, “Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 2003. Updated to 2007 at http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/saez.

Comments are almost superfluous. A democracy ? The press is full of articles about the superrich subsiding ultraconservative media and websites and buying votes. A plutocracy in the making ? Has it ever been really different ?

2 comments:

Pablo Carpintero said...

Recent data are even more baffling.

See : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/22/income-inequality-america_n_772687.html.

Pablo Carpintero said...

And : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-perfect-storm_1_b_767387.html.