Top 1% see income grow 224%

October 21st, 2011, 1:01 am · · posted by Mary Ann Milbourn

The Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Orange County and related movements claim those in the top 1% in the U.S. have seen their incomes outpace the remaining 99% which has led to the rich having a disproportionate control of the nation’s wealth.

The Economic Policy Institute analyzed U.S. income data from 1979 to 2007 and concluded that those in the top 1% saw their inflation-adjusted income grow 224% during that time period while incomes for those in the bottom 90% were up just 5%. (Note this is inflation adjusted.)

For the 0.1% at the very top of the income ladder, the income increase was 390% over that same 28 years, the EPI found. (Click on chart to enlarge.)



CNBC blogger Jeff Cox tried to figure out who exactly these 1% are and decided it could vary dramatically based on who you count, how you count them and the difference between income and wealth.

He cited a study by U.C.-Santa Cruz professor G. William Domhoff, updated in July, that concluded the top 1% controlled 42.7% of the national financial wealth in 2007.

Cox noted the wealth disparity has been around a long time.

“In 1922, 1 Percenters controlled 36.7 percent of the nation’s wealth, and that number jumped to 44.2 percent by the time the stock market crashed in 1929. The total hit a low of 19.9 percent in 1976 but has been on a steady uptrend since. In fact, there is a pretty direct correlation between the fortunes of the stock market and the amount of wealth the 1 Percenters control,â€