Income Inequality Higher Than Ever

Simon McCormack [ Fri Aug 14 2009 10:28 AM ]

An academic paper updated by UC Berkley Professor Emmanuel Saez indicates that income disparity in America is higher than ever before.

In 2007, the paper says the top .01 percent of earners took home 6 percent of American wages. The trend of increasing income disparity began to accelerate during the Clinton years and continued to skyrocket under the Bush administration. Between 2002 and 2007, the top 1 percent captured two thirds of income growth, according to the paper.

economics

Public Comments (3)

- DarcyBennet
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My favorite myth [ Fri Aug 14 2009 2:12 PM ]

about income disparity is the idea that those who make shit tons of money do so because they work hard, the implication being that those who make less money don't work hard enough. It's not because they're exploiting others. Nope. Hard workers.
- Jessica
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Also [ Fri Aug 14 2009 3:32 PM ]

Don't forget to mention all of the people born to 14-year-old illiterate mothers and 29-year-old illiterate grandmothers who can't even get jobs in food service ... they are just lazy.
- machi
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Link [ Sun Aug 16 2009 10:16 AM ]

Read about income inequality and the social determinants of health & happiness in Albuquerque: [link]
Example: In zip code 87122 (Foothills of the NE Heights)the richest 20% of the population (quintile) earns 54 times what the poorest 20% earns.