Aggregate Income Breakdown: A Damning Indictment Of Growing Inequality Since 1967

[eniwetok]

There's been much research on growing inequality over the years. This US Census chart bears it out...

https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/household/2014/h02AR.xls

It breaks down national aggregate income by quintile and the top 5%. The highlight here is that the income share of the bottom quintile peaked in 1974 and has decreased 28% by 2014... while the income of the top 5% went up 32% during that same period.

But it's more important to look at when changes happened.

The bottom quintile first dropped below 4% in 1985

The second quintile first dropped below 10% in 1983 then below 9% in 1994

The third quintile first dropped below 17% in 1977, below 16% in 1989, below 15% in 1999

The fourth quintile first dropped below 24% in 1993

Needless to say the gains went to the top quintile which started out at 43.6% in 1967 and rose to 51.2% by 2014.