According to the Congressional
Budget Office, between 1979 and 2007 incomes for the top 20% of American
earners grew by 89% or $124,000 while incomes for those in the lowest quintile
grew by only 11% or $1,800. [[i]]
Incomes for the top 1%
of earners grew by an amazing 241% or $1,323,000. Thus, incomes for the top 1% of earners grew
by 735 times as much as those for the lowest quintile. [[ii]]
In 2007 this top 1% had
a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928, just before the
start of the Great Depression.
In 2007 the richest 1%
of Americans owned 35% of the country's wealth while the next 19% owned 50%.
Thus, the top 20% owned 85% of the country's wealth while the bottom 80% owned
15%. [[iii]]
It certainly would not
be fair for everyone to receive the same income or control the same amount
of wealth. Effort, risk-taking,
initiative, innovation, responsibility, and well developed skills must be
rewarded for our economy to function well.
The problem is with the degree of inequity.
Our system is not so
fair that we can say with any certainty that those who succeed simply deserve
success due to the decisions they make and the effort they expend. Many others who make reasonable decisions and
work hard don’t succeed for reasons beyond their control. They get sick, their factory closes, they have
the wrong skills, their company fails, their job is outsourced, they are in the
wrong place, and so forth.
[iii] Wolff, E. N. (2010). Recent trends in household wealth in the United
States: Rising debt and the middle-class squeeze - an update to 2007. Working Paper No. 589. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: The
Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
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