Since there seems to be a debate within 4.0 about rich vs. poor,  I thought I would google and post some statistics about the growing gap between the poor and the rich.  I think this is important because one of the strengths of our country over the past hundred years was our growing middle class and diminishing number of people living in poverty.  Times have begun to change and larger and larger amounts of wealth are held by a smaller number of people every year. 
 
So statistics/articles:

Recession widens gap between Rich and Poor Even Further - ASSOC. Press - 10/1/2009
 
The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.
 
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.
 
Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997.
 
Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.
 
"No one should be surprised at the increased disparity," said Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University. "Unemployment hurts normal workers who do not have the golden parachutes the folks at the top have."
 
Analysts attributed the widening gap to the wave of layoffs in the economic downturn that have devastated household budgets. They said while the richest Americans may be seeing reductions in executive pay, those at the bottom of the income ladder are often unemployed and struggling to get by.
 
Between 2007 and 2008, income at the 50th percentile (median) and the 10th percentile fell by 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, compared with a 2.1 percent decline at the 90th percentile. Between 1999 and 2008, income at the 50th and 10th percentiles decreased 4.3 percent and 9 percent, respectively, while income at the 90th percentile was statistically unchanged.
 
From "Recession widens gap between Rich and Poor Even Further - ASSOC. Press - 10/1/2009 http://www.nydailynews.com/money/personal_finance/2009/09/29/2009-09-29_recession_hit_middleincome_and_poor_families_hardest_widening_the_economic_gap_b.html#ixzz0ZPGnuaUE
 
(I think this is huge that the past decade the middle class saw a 4.3% drop in income and lower class saw a 9% drop in income - especially if you consider that our utilities and commodities such as gas, grain, rice, etc. have risen so dramatically.  The upper class in the 90th percentile did not see a change in their incomes.)


Next: article/statistics from

Gap Between Rich And Poor Growing

Study Of Global Income Inequality Shows U.S. Middle Income, Poor Falling Further Behind Since 2000, Assoc. Press, 10/21/2008

 
 
The gap between rich and poor is getting bigger in the world's richest countries - and particularly the United States - as top earners' incomes soar while others' stagnate, according to a 30-nation report released Tuesday.
 
In a 20-year study of its member countries, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany they are also leaving middle-income earners further behind, with potentially ominous consequences if the global financial crisis sparks a long recession.
Inequality threatens the "American Dream" of social mobility - children doing better than their parents, the poor improving their lot through hard work - which is lower in the U.S. than countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Australia, the report "Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries" found.
 
The two decades covered in the study - 1985-2005 - saw the development of global trade and the Internet, and a period of overall strong economic growth. The countries covered are mostly developed nations, especially in Europe.

The United States has the highest inequality and poverty in the OECD after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000, the report said. France, meanwhile, has seen inequalities fall in the past 20 years as poorer workers are better paid.
 
 
The OECD's Gurria urged governments to address the "divisive" issue of growing inequality. He said they should do more to educate the whole work force - and not just the elite - while helping people get jobs and increasing incomes for working families, rather than relying on social benefits.
 
"Greater income inequality stifles upward mobility between generations, making it harder for talented and hardworking people to get the rewards they deserve," he said in a statement. "It polarizes societies, it divides regions within countries, and it carves up the world between rich and poor."
In the United States, the richest 10 percent earn an average of $93,000 - the highest level in the OECD. The poorest 10 percent earn an average of $5,800 - about 20 percent lower than the OECD average.
 
Social mobility is lowest in countries with high inequality such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy, the report said.
 
From:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/21/business/main4535488.shtml
 
The next article is about taxes:

CB&PP: Income Gaps hit record levels in 2006, new data show rich-poor gap tripled between 1970 and 2006. 

 
New data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that in 2006, the top 1 percent of households had a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income, and the middle and bottom fifths of households had smaller shares, than in any year since 1979, the first year the CBO data cover. As a result, the gaps in after-tax incomes between households in the top 1 percent and those in the middle and bottom fifths were the widest on record.

Between 1979 and 2006, real after-tax incomes rose by 256 percent — or $863,000 — for the top 1 percent of households, compared to 21 percent — or $9,200 — for households in the middle fifth of households and 11 percent — or $1,600 — for households in the bottom fifth. (See Figure 1, next page.) In 2006, the average household in the top 1 percent had an income of $1.2 million, up $63,000 just from the prior year; this $63,000 gain is nearly two times the total income of the average middle-income household. [1]
 

Changes in Inequality Since 1979:

 
The gap in income between the wealthiest Americans and all others has grown strikingly in recent decades, the CBO data show. In 1979, when the data begin, the average after-tax incomes of the top 1 percent of households were 7.9 times higher than those of the middle fifth of households. By 1989 they were 13.5 times higher.
 
Top incomes continued climbing in the 1990s, to 20.6 times higher than the middle fifth of households in 2000 and 21.3 times higher in 2005. By 2006, top incomes were 23.0 times higher than those of the middle fifth — nearly tripling the income gap between the top 1 percent and those in the middle since 1979.
 
The gap between the top 1 percent and the poorest fifth of Americans widened even more dramatically over this same period. In 1979, the incomes of the top 1 percent were 22.6 times higher than those of the bottom fifth. Top incomes continued climbing to 63.1 times higher in 2000 and 72.7 times higher by 2006 — more than tripling the rich-poor gap in 27 years.
 
The CBO data also show that between 1979 and 2006:
 

  • The average after-tax income of the top 1 percent of the population more than tripled, from $337,000 to over $1.2 million. As noted, this represented an increase of $863,000, or 256 percent.
  • By contrast, the average after-tax income of the middle fifth of the population rose from $42,900 in 1979 to $52,100 in 2006 — a relatively modest gain of $9,200 or 21 percent over a 27-year period.
  • The average after-tax income of the poorest fifth of the population rose only from $14,900 to $16,500, an increase of $1,600 or 11 percent. [3]

 
From: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2789

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