And the poor are getting poorer. But hey, ain’t we got fun?
Wealth inequality widened dramatically during the first two years of the economic recovery, as the upper 7 percent of American households saw their average net worth increase 28 percent, while the wealth of the other 93 percent declined, according to a report released Tuesday.
The study by the Pew Research Center underscored other data showing that the economic growth that has followed the Great Recession has benefited mainly those at the top. The uneven recovery has only accelerated a decades-long trend of growing wealth inequality in the country, despite rising popular and political awareness of the dynamic.
From 2009 to 2011, the average net worth of the nation’s 8 million most-affluent households jumped from an estimated $2.7 million to $3.2 million, Pew said. For the 111 million households that form the bottom 93 percent, average net worth fell 4 percent, from $140,000 to an estimated $134,000, the report said.
The changes mean that the wealth gap separating the top 7 percent and everyone else increased from 18-to-1 to 24-to-1 between 2009 and 2011. Overall, the most affluent 7 percent of households owned 63 percent of the nation’s household wealth in 2011, up from 56 percent in 2009.
The biggest difference between the most-affluent group and everyone else, Pew said, is that the wealthiest households have their assets concentrated in stocks and other financial instruments, while others’ wealth is concentrated in their homes.
If your wealth is all tied up in your home then your a planation slave. The 1% have several homes and their money is loaned out and working for them day and night. Is that radical talk? What is a radical? Being a radical is not the same as being a warmonger. The Christ was a radical. Osama bin Laden was a warmonger. Some radicals, the Left ones, think that the 1% should become members of the 99%. That their wealth should be redistributed downward. That’s called radical thinking by the 1% and their Republican bootlickers. Oh, well.