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Apparently, Americans are getting wealthier
And this final note, one that is hard to imagine for millions of Americans still looking for jobs.
Believe it or not, Americans' overall wealth grew more than 2 percent in the third quarter. Household net worth is nearly $55 trillion, up from $49 trillion two years ago in the depths of the Great Recession. A positive development until you consider this: We need another 20 percent gain to get back to where we were pre-recession.
An almost meaningless factoid, unless and until you dig a little deeper and report how that wealth increase was distributed across the economic ladder. My guess, based on the past 30 years, is that almost all the increase accrued to the top 2%, while the bottom 98% saw almost no increase.
You do a disservice to your listeners by not reporting the real meat of the story.
An almost meaningless factoid, unless and until you dig a little deeper and report how that wealth increase was distributed across the economic ladder. My guess, based on the past 30 years, is that almost all the increase accrued to the top 2%, while the bottom 98% saw almost no increase.
You do a disservice to your listeners by not reporting the real meat of the story.
Mark's right to be skeptical when you look at the data rigourously explored -- for a popular article series -- by Timothy Noah's "The Great Divergence" at: http://www.slate.com/id/2267157
The trend over the last 30 years, and especially the last 15 since the "Contract with America" has been for greater income inequality via the enrichment of the upper financial echelon and a dramatically weaker middle class. Noah explores the reasons why -- and while his data aren't focused on Q3 2010 the trend that Mark cites is very much supported by the data.
