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American Household Income, 1975 to Now: More Richer, Fewer Poorer
From Brian Doherty of Reason.
"Don Boudreaux over at Cafe Hayek highlights
this interesting chart showing household income distributions
from 1975 and roughly today, and the news ain't terrible. It shows
that the percentage of households in every income distribution from
fewer than $15 thousand a year to $75-$100 thousand a year has
fallen, with the only rise--a pretty big 11.7 percent--in the
over-$100K-a-year category.
As Boudreaux explains:
The percentage of American households with what might commonly
be regarded to be middle-class incomes is indeed falling – but so,
too, is the percentage of American households with what are surely
“poor” incomes. So once-middle-class Americans are not
becoming poor. Instead, they’re becoming rich; their real
monetary incomes are rising. The percentage of American
households earning high incomes
($100,000 annually and above) is on the rise – and impressively
so. Let me emphasize: A much greater percentage of
households today (compared to 1975) have annual incomes of $100,000
or more (in 2013 dollars).....
the
average number of persons per American household today (2013) is
13.6 percent fewer than in 1975, so each
real dollar of household income is today shared by fewer people
than in 1975 – meaning that the increase in
“per-person-in-household” annual real incomes is even more
impressive than these data show....these data are pre-tax yet
post-cash transfers (such as Social Security payments),
Nick Gillespie from November on
three more illuminating charts from Congressional Budget Office
data on American income, income growth, and income
inequality."
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