[lbo-talk] Survey of Consumer Finances (2)

Paul paul_ at igc.org
Mon Feb 27 14:18:31 PST 2006


[I added this from today's paper. P.]

Re this apparent trend where neoliberalism has been increasingly narrowing the base of its beneficiaries: this is from today's Krugman op-ed (happened to be shown to me). Krugman draws on Gordon's study using data only through 2001. The new 2004 SCF data *seems* to make this trend even more striking.

Paul


> ... We're seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are
> becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged
> elite....
>...So who are the winners from rising inequality? It's not the top 20
>percent, or even the top 10 percent. The big gains have gone to a much
>smaller, much richer group than that.
>
>A new research paper by Ian Dew-Becker and Robert Gordon of Northwestern
>University, "Where Did the Productivity Growth Go?," gives the details.
>Between 1972 and 2001 the wage and salary income of Americans at the 90th
>percentile of the income distribution rose only 34 percent, or about 1
>percent per year. So being in the top 10 percent of the income
>distribution, like being a college graduate, wasn't a ticket to big income
>gains.
>
>But income at the 99th percentile rose 87 percent; income at the 99.9th
>percentile rose 181 percent; and income at the 99.99th percentile rose 497
>percent. No, that's not a misprint.
>
>Just to give you a sense of who we're talking about: the nonpartisan Tax
>Policy Center estimates that this year the 99th percentile will correspond
>to an income of $402,306, and the 99.9th percentile to an income of
>$1,672,726. The center doesn't give a number for the 99.99th percentile,
>but it's probably well over $6 million a year....

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