Reform or Revolution?

[minionofmidas]

So, other than the 20% of income which falls to very high income households, the rest of the country looks very much like a uniform spread of incomes with a safety net at about the break between the lowest and next lowest quintiles.

Yes, the 'two-class' society we all can easily observe around us. 

Yeah, that's what it looks like.

I remember seeing figures for different Western countries and noticing that distribution was most uneven in the US...and also more uneven in the UK, Australia etc than in continental Europe.
But I recognize some of that may have been due to apples compared with oranges.

[MODU]

"Inequality of income, wealth, and opportunity in America is wider now than it's been since the 1920s, and by some measures since the late 19th century. Yet the nation seems unable or unwilling to do much of anything to reverse these trends.

Ahhh . . . another proud socialist.    Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

[minionofmidas]

Which means...rich people became poor?

Young workers make up a lot of the change in this graph. I was a taxpayer in 1979, and I was in the bottom quintile having spent half the year in college and 4 months in graduate school on an assistantship. In 1988 I had my first full year as a post-doc, and was newly married to someone who made considerably more than a post-doc. Clearly I was one of the stats who moved up to a higher quintile.

People can also move down upon retirement, but they can also move off the chart entirely by death.

Also, notice that the graph does not show what the headline claims it does. These are only those who were in the lowest quintile in 1979 but were paying taxes in 1988. Most of those who stayed in the lowest quintile were likely not paying taxes.

[A18]

So now you're acknowledging most of the people in the lowest quintile are young people who move up. Thanks.

Lewis Trondheim, lowest quintile is of taxpayers. There's no inconsistency there, as you claim.

[minionofmidas]

So now you're acknowledging most of the people in the lowest quintile are young people who move up. Thanks.

Lewis Trondheim, lowest quintile is of taxpayers. There's no inconsistency there, as you claim.

It's still not of the entire population. It#s still a highly misleading graph. Especially with that headline.