In the previous two entries long term trends were presented that showed “the rich getting richer.” We have become so numb to this trend that we accept it as a truism. The rich get richer. That is the way it always has been and will be. Trends do not go on forever, not even in [...]
In the last entry data was provided for families in the top 20% of income. There is one higher category provided in the Statistical Abstracts, highest 5% in family income. Their proportion of total personal income went from 15.5% in 1974 to 22.2% in 2005. Some commentary on these two trends will be provided in [...]
You knew this was coming. We’ve presented the trend data since 1974 on the middle and low income families. Here is the trend for the proportion of income held by the highest 5th of family income. The upper 5th (20%) of families went from receiving 41% of total personal income in 1974 to 50.4% in [...]
This web site is titled The Middle Class Forum, yet for almost a week data has been presented related more to low income families. This begs the question of why we, the middle class, should concern ourselves about trends affecting the lowest incomes. We have seen the shares of income held by both middle and [...]
Previously on The Middle Class Forum the trend for the % of total personal income earned by the poorest families was displayed. Their share of income, low to begin with, has been steadily decreasing since the seventies. Puppet Libertarians and the Powell Cabal maintain that relative amounts do not matter as long as everyone’s income [...]
Continue reading about Two Income Trends for Lowest 5th in Family Income
The trend reported in the last entry was the decline of welfare benefits relative to all social benefits provided by government at all levels. But the majority of benefits that government provides corresponds to old age and health care that is received by all income levels. Puppet Libertarians and the Powell Cabal want to convince [...]
Continue reading about Declining Benefits for the Lowest Income Families
The benefits government provides exclusively to those who need economic assistance has decreased as a proportion of the total benefits that government provides. In 1974 10.8% of social benefits went to programs for low income needs. In 2007 this had decreased to 4.9%. More commentary about this to follow in the next entry. Right Click [...]
The previous log entry provided data that undermines the claim from Puppet Libertarians and the Powell Cabal that a “rising tide lifts all boats” in our economic system. At least for those families with the lowest incomes, the amount of “lifting” they are getting from inflationary increases in their incomes is still being drowned by [...]
To recap this wealth distribution series to date, we first witnessed that the proportion of income distributed to the middle 20% of families has decreased steadily since 1974, revealing an economic system out of balance. We then witnessed that this income has not been lost to the poor, the decrease in their proportion of income [...]
Thank you to the people who have commented so far. There have not been many posted because of a requirement I have that is not commonly met. This is now stated in the Comments Policy under Forum Features. I require that you include a given name, town and state, since The Middle Class Forum is [...]