Quote from Ricter:
But is inequality really a problem?
Bret Stephens of the WSJ, in response to Obama's claim: "The top 10 percent no longer takes in one-third of our income -- it now takes half..."
"Stephens declared this statement incorrect in several ways:
"Here is a factual error, marred by an analytical error, compounded by a moral error. It's the top 20% that take in just over half of aggregate income, according to the Census Bureau, not the top 10%. That figure is essentially unchanged since the mid-1990s, when Bill Clinton was president. And it isn't dramatically different from 1979, when the top fifth took in 44% of aggregate income.
"Besides which, so what? In 1979 the mean household income of the bottom 20% was $4,006. By 2012, it was $11,490. That's an increase of 186%. For the middle class, the increase was 211%. For the top fifth it's 320%. The richer have outpaced the poorer in growing their incomes, just as runners will outpace joggers who will, in turn, outpace walkers. But, as James Taylor might say, the walking man walks."
If he is trying to argue that there has not been a growing divide since the early 80's, he is wrong. Multiple ways of looking at it show it.
