the big increase in the one percent's income share came between 1980 and 2000

From Greg Mankiw.

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Piketty and Saez have updated their famous one-percent graph to 2013.  It is above. (Click on graphic to enlarge.)

One thing that commentators sometimes fail to notice is that the big increase in the one percent's income share came between 1980 and 2000. Since 2000, it has fluctuated but without much of a trend.  Why, then, are we all talking about income inequality only now? I am not sure. One hypothesis is that we don't worry about inequality when everyone is doing well. Another hypothesis is that we now have a president with a political ideology that sees inequality as especially pernicious"