New York Times:
Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans - those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 - receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.
While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.
The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent.
It's not entirely bad news. This sort of economic policy tends to backfire politically. "If the economy is growing but only a few are enjoying the benefits, it goes to our sense of fairness," Prof. Emmanuel Saez, a University of California, Berkeley, economist says. "It can have important political consequences."
If any candidate argues for the economic status quo, they're going to screw themselves. And those candidates are almost certain to be republican.
