(It would be better if “Occupiers” were talking about these, too – promoted by Colorado Pols)
In all the hubbub of police marching in riot gear and protestors fleeing, chroniclers of the Occupy Movement sometimes forget to remind us what’s at the heart of the matter for the Occupiers.
So, here’s a crib sheet for anyone writing about Occupy in 2012.
Income Inequality: Occupy by the Numbers
Percentage of our nation’s wealth owned by the top 1% of earners: 33.8%
Percentage of U.S. wealth owned by the bottom 50% of Americans: 2.5%.
Percentage of investment assets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.) owned by top 1%: over 50%
Percentage of investment assets owned by the bottom half: 0.5%
Percentage of the nation’s personal debt owed by the top 1% in the US: 5%
Percentage of the nation’s personal debt owed by the bottom 90% of Americans: 73%
Tax rate for highest income earners in 1944: 94%
Today: 35%
Between 1980 and 2005, percentage of all income gains that went to the top 1%: 80%
Percentage growth in real income for top 1% of earners since 1979: 275%
Percentage growth in real income for bottom 20% of earners since 1979: 18%
Last decade in U.S. history when the top 1% earned as high or higher a share of the national income as they do today (24%): 1920s
Last decade in which the super-elite (top .01% of earners) claimed a higher share: Never
Percentage change in average CEO pay since 1990: +300%
Percentage change in “production worker” pay since 1990: +4%
Last year when the purchasing power of U.S. federal minimum wage reached as low as it is today: 1955
Ratio of average worker’s income to top CEO salaries in 1970: 1 to 38
Today: 1 to 1,723
Amount of nation’s wealth controlled by the top 1% elite in Ancient Rome: 16%
Amount of nation’s wealth controlled by the top 1% elite in U.S. today: 40%
Fraction of U.S. public who think there is too much power in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations in the U.S.: 3/4
Fraction of Americans who believed this in 1941: 3/5
Percentage of American millionaires who agree who agree that Occupy “protestors are making a good and valid point”: 35%
Percentage of U.S. Congress who are millionaires: 47%
Percentage of U.S. Senators who are millionaires: 66%
Ratio of Americans living below the poverty line: 1 in 7
Rank of U.S. among rich nations in the percentage of children living in poverty: 2nd (21.9%)
In 2010 alone, percentage change in average income among the 24 million poorest families in U.S.: -10 %
Rank of U.S. among developed nations of the world in income inequality: 1st
Follow Jason Salzman in Twitter @bigmediablog
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tell the most shocking part of the story. Could you add to the crib sheet the same info you’ve provided for the top 1% for the top tenth of 1%? That’s where the lion’s share of that top 1% wealth is, the rest being affluent to wealthy in a pretty unspectacular way. From that point, the top tenth of 1%, on up to the top 400 or so families is where the most jaw dropping aspect of the tale unfolds. I’m guessing you already have easy access to some pretty good sources whereas I’d have to spend some serious time tracking all that stuff down again.
These are mostly based on secondary sources, but I recall some stats and will take a look.
Bet ypu can do it alot faster than this old dinosaur. I’ve seen them in the past.
Sharing.
Looking at the top .1% changed my thinking. I no longer think of someone making $750,000 to $1,000,000 as “rich” compared to them. And, of course, wealth is completely different from, but connected to, earnings.
My idea of “rich”: Their car works, the bank’s not on their ass and they don’t have to bake their own bread. Oh, that’s me. That means I’m a Repuglican job creator!
once in a while, aren’t you?
And Albertsons had a really good cheese and jalapeno topped flatish bread, but I perfected that at home, so no more.
Isn’t it amazing there is such a disparity in wealth and economic inequality under our “socialistic” president.
All by hisself.
Happy New Year, Larry.
Well, hardly anyone.
Look – from 1911 to now all Americans experienced a huge increase in standard of living, by most conventional measures.
It’s a nuanced argument and hard to convert to bumper sticker-eze that if the relative gains in income had been approximately similar for all wage earners the median household income would be $90,781 (in 2010 dollars).
You know how I know no one cares?
More people will watch the Broncos game tomorrow than will watch anything like this. Or this
Hell, more people will watch youtube videos of cats doing things than anything like the two linked.
You think your average juror is King Solomon? No, he’s a roofer with a mortgage. He wants to go home and sit in his Barcalounger and let the cable TV wash over him. And this man doesn’t give a single, solitary droplet of shit about truth, justice or your American way ~ Rankin Fitch, as written by Koppleman, Levien, Cleveland and Chapman.
Fitch is right – as long as there is AC in the summer, heat in the winter and free internet porn all the time.
My cats and dog keep me so damned entertained I barely have time to keep up on the Kardashians.
As long as videos like the first one spend five minutes giving thanks to university donors, no one will ever watch them except you and I. When will those on the left learn to deliver the message in a way that doesn’t make people die from boredom?