what you wish were true, what you think is true, what's true
What percentage of our country's wealth should be owned by the richest 20 percent of folks? How about the poorest? The middle ones? Ask a bunch of Americans what they think the ideal distribution of wealth should be, and you'll get a pretty uniform answer. Across boundaries, from rich and poor, most folks, proving that we're an equality-minded bunch who nonetheless believe that it's fair for the rich to have more and the poor less, will draw you something like this.
Then ask them what they think the actual distribution of wealth really is, and you'll get, once again, a pretty uniform answer, proving that we have an idea that things aren't quite as we might wish, that looks like this.
Now let's take a look at what it actually is.
Note that the bottom two categories, representing forty percent of America, don't even show up on the graph. (I added a darker bar to represent how much of that top category represents the top 1 percent.)
This is all from an interesting article that goes into some depth, with graph and analysis, on the subject. I don't agree with some of their "shoulds," explicit or implicit, but the raw numbers are there for you to see and interpret.
Then ask them what they think the actual distribution of wealth really is, and you'll get, once again, a pretty uniform answer, proving that we have an idea that things aren't quite as we might wish, that looks like this.
Now let's take a look at what it actually is.
Note that the bottom two categories, representing forty percent of America, don't even show up on the graph. (I added a darker bar to represent how much of that top category represents the top 1 percent.)
This is all from an interesting article that goes into some depth, with graph and analysis, on the subject. I don't agree with some of their "shoulds," explicit or implicit, but the raw numbers are there for you to see and interpret.
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