15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

By Gus Lubin
Business Insider
Friday, April 9, 2010
Courtesy Of The San Francisco Chronicle

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Cliché, sure, but it's also more true than at any time since the Gilded Age.

The poor are getting poorer, wages are falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low.

Here's 15 Mind-Blowing Charts About Wealth And Inequality In America >

The gap between 1% and everyone else hasn't been this bad since the roaring Twenties

Source: The Nation

Half of America has only 2.5% of the wealth

Source: Institute for Policy Studies

Half of America has only 0.5% of the stocks and bonds

Source: Institute for Policy Studies

Look at the gap grow!

Source: Professor G. William Domhoff

The last two decades were great... except for American workers

Real average earnings have not increased in 50 years

But savings rates are sinking

Poor Americans have a SLIM CHANCE of rising to the upper middle class

Source: NBER

Republican tax cuts have significantly increased the gap

Source:

Taxes get better and better for the rich

America spreads the wealth FAR LESS than other developed countries

America's income spread is nearly twice the OECD average

Source: Economist

The gap is NOT growing in many countries, like France

Inequality is worst around Wall Street and Oil Land

If you aren't in the top 1%, then you're getting a bum deal

Now Read...

20 Cities That Have Completely Missed The Recovery