The following facts are from We Are The 99%’s website:
Between 1979 and 2009, the richest 5 percent of American families saw their real incomes increase 73 percent while the poorest Americans saw their real incomes decrease by 7 percent.
If U.S. incomes were still distributed as they were in 1979, the average U.S. worker would receive nearly $6,000 more a year in income.
In 2009, the richest 74 Americans earned as much as the 19 million lowest paid Americans combined.
David Cay Johnston. October 2010. “Scary New Wage Data.” Tax.com.
Every fourteen minutes in 2009, hedge fund manager David Tepper made President Obama’s annual salary.
Public Citizen’s Congress Watch. March 2011. “Hourly Rates: A Modest Essay about Extraordinary Paychecks.”
Between 1980 and 2000, top-paid American CEOs increased their pay from 42 times the average worker’s pay to 531 times the average worker pay.
April 22, 2002. “CEOs: Why They’re So Unloved.” Business Week.
In 2007, the top 50 hedge fund and private equality fund managers averaged $588 million in compensation each, 19,000 times the typical U.S. worker.
Institute for Policy Studies. August 2008. “Executive Excess 2008: How Average Taxpayers Subsidize Runaway Pay:15th Annual CEO Compensation Survey.”
In 2010, the combined pay of 299 CEOs could support 102,325 workers earning the median wage.
Executive Paywatch. 2011. AFL-CIO.
In 2010, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans took home 24 percent of all US income.
Piketty, Thomas and Emmanuel Saez. 2007. “Income and wage inequality in the United States, 1913–2002.” In Atkinson & Piketty 2007, pp. 141–225.
Between 1979 and 2007, after-tax wages for the top 1 percent of income earners nearly tripled, while the bottom half barely kept up with inflation.
Congressional Budget Office. 2009. “Data on the Distribution of Federal Taxes and Household Income,”
The gap between CEO and average worker pay at major U.S. corporations is twice as wide as the gap in major British corporations and four times wider than the pay gap at major Swedish corporations.
Reuters, Aug 4, 2011.
If the incomes of the richest 1 percent of Americans increased only as fast as national productivity after 1980, they would have taken $1 trillion less from our economy.
Paul Buchheit. July 2011. “Gini’s Growing Fast (Or How Much Can One Man Make?).” CommonDreams.org
Since 1979, two-thirds of all income gains in the United States have gone to the top 10 percent of income-earners, and 39 percent has gone to the top 1 percent alone.
Economic Policy Institute. May 2011. “We’re Not Broke Nor Will We Be.”
Over half the income that goes to America’s most affluent 1 percent goes to the top tenth of 1 percent, the richest one out of every thousand families.
David Cay Johnston. August 2011. “How You Can Have a Billion Dollar Income in America and Pay No Taxes.”
Between 2002 and 2007, 65 cents of every dollar in wage gains went to the top one percent of American wage earners.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. September 2009. “Top 1 Percent of Americans Reaped Two-Thirds of Income Gains in Last Economic Expansion.”
If everyone’s income had grown at the same percentage rate between 1979 and 2007, average income households would have received an additional $13,042 in after tax income in 2007.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. June 2010. “Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else More Than Tripled In Last Three Decades New Data Show.”
The increase in federal assistance for most Americans since 1979 is almost exactly equal to the additional income those folks would have made if incomes were still distributed the same way they were in 1979.
Piketty, Thomas and Emmanuel Saez. 2007. “Income and wage inequality in the United States, 1913–2002.” In Atkinson & Piketty 2007, pp. 141–225.
In 2010, major U.S. corporations only paid 18 percent of their domestic profits in tax.
The Greenlining Institute. 2011. “Corporate America Untaxed: Tax Avoidance on the Rise.”
Of the world’s 26 major industrial nations, only two collect less in corporate taxes, as a share of GDP, than the United States.
The Greenlining Institute. 2011. “Corporate America Untaxed: Tax Avoidance on the Rise.”
In 2011, roughly 24,000 U.S. taxpayers making over $533,000 will pay no federal income taxes at all.
Tax Policy Center. July 2011. “The Numbers.”
Last year alone, the Bush tax cuts saved America’s top 0.1 percent — taxpayers making over $3 million a year — an average of $520,000 each.
Economic Policy Institute. June 2011. “Tenth Anniversary of the Bush-era Tax Cuts.”
In 2011 and 2012, the wealthiest 0.25 percent of all American estates will pay $23 billion less to support our government due to the budget compromise between Republicans and President Obama.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. May 2011. “New Estate Tax Rules Should Expire After 2011.”
Not one state in the nation requires the very wealthy to pay as much of their income in state and local taxes as the middle class.
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. November 2009. “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States.”
The most affluent 20 percent of U.S. taxpayers receive 55 percent of the nation’s income and claim 65 percent of all tax expenditure value.
Tax Policy Center. May 2011. “Who Benefits from Tax Expenditures?”
The U.S. government spends $400 billion annually in tax incentives to help people create wealth. The top one percent gets 45 percent of these benefits, while the bottom 60 percent gets just 4 percent.
CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development). 2010. “Upside Down: THE $400 Billion Federal Asset-Building Budget.”
In 1992, the richest 400 Americans had a total taxable income of $16.9 billion and paid federal taxes of 29 percent on that sum. In 2008, the aggregate income of the richest 400 soared to $90.9 billion but the rate paid fell to 22 percent.
Warren Buffett. August 2011. “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.” New York Times.
Economists and experts agree that tax cuts for the wealthy does not stimulate the economy or create jobs.
Economic Policy Institute. August 2010. “Let the Tax Cuts for the Rich Expire.”
Since 1955, the tax rate that the richest 400 families in America actually pay has dropped from 51% to less than 17%.
Wealth for the Common Good. April 2010. “Shifting Responsibility: How 50 Years of Tax Cuts Benefited the Most Wealthy.”
If the top 400 of 2007 paid as much of their incomes in personal income tax as the top 400 of 1955, the federal treasury would have collected $47.7 billion more in revenue from just these 400 taxpayers.
Wealth for the Common Good. April 2010. “Shifting Responsibility: How 50 Years of Tax Cuts Benefited the Most Wealthy.”
Over the last half-century, America’s wealthiest taxpayers have seen their taxes drop enormously. Meanwhile, the share of their household income that middle class Americans pay in federal taxes has increased slightly.
Wealth for the Common Good. April 2010. “Shifting Responsibility: How 50 Years of Tax Cuts Benefited the Most Wealthy.”
The wealthiest one percent of American families own over one third of the nation’s net worth and the top ten percent owns over 70 percent of the nation’s net worth.
Economic Policy Institute. 2011. “The State of Working America: Wealth.”
The richest 1 percent of Americans now own more wealth than the poorest 90 percent of Americans combined.
Economic Policy Institute. 2011. “The State of Working America: Wealth.”
The richest 400 Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 155 million Americans combined.
Economic Policy Institute. 2011. “The State of Working America: Wealth.”
The richest 400 American households now own $1.37 trillion. That could pay the annual salaries of 19 million American families for one year.
United for a Fair Economy. July 2011. “11 Things the Wealthiest Americans Could Buy for the U.S. that Most Families Can Afford for Themselves.”
The gap between the wealthiest 1 percent and the rest is greater now than even during the Great Depression.
Piketty, Thomas and Emmanuel Saez. 2007. “Income and wage inequality in the United States, 1913–2002.” In Atkinson & Piketty 2007, pp. 141–225.
In the first year of the economic crisis, average workers lost 25 percent of their retirement savings in IRA accounts, while the wealthiest 400 families increased their wealth by $300 billion.
Greenberg Quinlin and Rosner.
There is currently greater wealth concentration in America than there is in politically unstable counties like Egypt and Tunisia.
Central Intelligence Agency. 2011. “The World Factbook.”
Average household wealth in the United States increased 40.3 percent between 1983 and 2009, but the wealth of the median, or most typical, U.S. household actually fell.
Tax Policy Center. May 2011. “Who Benefits from Tax Expenditures?”
Over a third of Americans who are born to parents at the bottom of the income ladder remain very poor their entire lives.
Bhashkar Mazumder. May 2008. “Upward Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States.” Economic Mobility Project.
In America today, the number one factor predicting how wealthy you will be is not whether or not you went to college, but whether or not your parents are wealthy.
Bhashkar Mazumder. May 2008. “Upward Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States.” Economic Mobility Project.
If you are born poor in America you are twice as likely as the average American to remain poor your entire life.
Bhashkar Mazumder. May 2008. “Upward Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States.” Economic Mobility Project.
It is now more difficult and less common for Americans to change their class position than it is for people in many old world countries like Germany, France, and England.
The State of Working America. 2011. “The United States produces less mobility than many of its international peers.”
Among the developed countries, the United States has the lowest social mobility in nearly all measures, while the European social democracies now have the highest.
Quiggin, John. 2010. Zombie economics: how dead ideas still walk among us. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Extreme inequality causes many other social problems – like decreases in life expectancy, math proficiency, literacy, social mobility, and education and increases in infant mortality, homicides, imprisonment, teenage births, social distrust, obesity, mental illness, drug addiction, and debt.
Wilkinson, Richard G., and Kate Pickett. 2010. The spirit level: why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
About 884,000 deaths per year in the United States result from the high level of income inequality. In other words, if the U.S. had Denmark’s inequality levels, we would have nearly 884,000 fewer deaths per year.
Naoki Kondo et al., “Income Inequality, Mortality, and Self-rated Health: Meta-analysis of Multi-level Studies,” British Medical Journal, 2009.
Economic inequality has little to no impact on economic growth. Between 1979 and 2006, economic growth per capita was essentially the same in Europe and the United States, despite high rates of inequality in the U.S.
Quiggin, John. 2010. Zombie economics: how dead ideas still walk among us. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Between 1982 and 2007, tuition and fees at colleges in the U.S. have increased an average of 439 percent – making it unaffordable for the middle class and the poor.
Tamar Lewin. December 2008. “College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S.” New York Times.
Due in part to economic inequality, students from high-income families with low test scores are now more likely to complete college than low-income students with high test scores.
Economic Policy Institute. 2011. “The State of Working America: Mobility.”
In a highly unequal society like the United States, wealthy parents find many ways – like expensive tutors and private schools – to ensure their children get an advantage.
Quiggin, John. 2010. Zombie economics: how dead ideas still walk among us. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Inequality is making racial disparities worse in the United States. Nearly all indexes—income, wealth, educational attainment, homeownership and foreclosures—show growing gaps between whites and other races.
Orlando Patterson. July 2010. “Can’t Call It Progress: African-Americans Are Earning Less Than Their Parents Did.” Alternet.
A majority of black middle-class children now earn less than their parents and almost half of the children had fallen to the bottom of the income distribution.
Bhashkar Mazumder. May 2008. “Upward Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States.” Economic Mobility Project.
Polls show that Americans, by a two-to-one margin, want to see the rich paying higher taxes.
Gallop Poll, August 10, 2011. Past polls.
In “blind testing,” 92 percent of Americans prefer Sweden’s more equal wealth distribution to the more unequal distribution in the United States.
Norton, Michael I. and Dan Ariely. 2011. “Building a Better America: One Wealth Quintile at a Time.” Perspectives on Psychological Science 6: 9.
