Top 10% of Americans own 70% of the nation’s wealth. The top 0.1% have more than 5x as much wealth as the bottom 50%.

https://i.redd.it/gosr9hd557yc1.jpeg

by wakeup2019

7 comments

  1. When you combine extreme income inequality with low taxes you eventually get extreme wealth inequality. If we want this to change, we can either compress the income distribution, raise taxes, or both.

  2. I don’t mind it if those 10% pay 70% of the nation’s tax.

  3. Sure they have the money, but what about resources society needs to function. Oil, Lumber, Wheat, etc

  4. That black sliver at the bottom is 65M households?

    I wonder how many states worth of people that is.

  5. This graph doesn’t really tell you much because it doesn’t show how few people are in that quintile.

    [The L-curve was developed over 10years ago.](https://lcurve.org) The chart shows income inequality. There is also a section on wealth inequality that tells you the number of people that own the wealth.

    [This web page shows you wealth distribution to scale.](https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/) It is 3 years old. You have to scroll to get to the end. I’ve often issued a challenge to anyone who could get to the end.

    There are several very interesting “factoids” embedded. Like the one that shows the amount it would cost to house every homeless veteran. Or the one to provide free cancer annual treatment to every American that needs it. When (if) you get to the 400 richest individuals, you can scroll down to see the number of people in the bottom 60%. Tell me you got to the bottom.

    Then there’s the factoid that all delinquent medical debt in the US could be eliminated by one day of income of the 400 richest.

    With only 5.3% of the wealth of the 400, Poverty in America could be eliminated. China did it. (There are more Americans living in poverty than the entire population of Canada)

  6. So what exactly is the issue here? The economy is not a zero-sum game. The top 10% gained this wealth by increasing the nation’s wealth. A rising tide lifts all boats.

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