Wealth Gap Is Increasing, Study Shows

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: Science Daily

The rich really are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, a new University of Michigan study shows.

The study---the most recent available analysis of long-term wealth trends among U.S. households---is based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) since 1968.

Over the last 20 years, the net worth of the top two percentile of American families nearly doubled, from $1,071,000 in 1984 to $2,100,500 in 2005. But the poorest quarter of American families lost ground over the same period, with their 2005 net worth below their 1984 net worth, measured in constant 2005 dollars.

The poorest ten percent of families actually had a negative net worth---more liabilities than assets. The poorest 5 percent of American households had a negative net worth of a little more than $1,000 in 1984, compared to nearly $9,000 in 2005

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070807171936.htm

[tanyev]

1. Ahhh...back to the Gilded Age.

Those poor plutocrats have had such a long, arduous travail since the depression and that awful New Deal. At last God is in his heaven and all is right with the world again.




:sarcasm:

[WCGreen]

2. Yea......

Maybe my monocle business will take off again...

[Javaman]

7. And spats! nt

[marshall]

11. Negative net worth = Credit card debt

Credit cards are given out like candy and people are racking up a mountain of debt with no way to pay it off. This is especially prevalent amongst college students.

[bamacrat]

3. "There's some lovely filth over here."

[Doctor_J]

4. And the more they have, the more they complain about their taxes

This debacle in Iraq may be the last nail in the coffin of the US economy

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Move along. There is nothing to see here (smirk). - Commander AWOL & Have Mores

"Smirk, smirk, smirk" - Commander AWOL & cabal of corrupt republicon Homelander crony Have Mores

[OneBlueSky]

6. Study??? . . . we don't need no stinkin' study!. . . WE KNOW!!! . . . n/t

.

[OhioChick]

8. No Shit.....

We need a study for this??

[PurityOfEssence]

9. It's not enough! They need more! It's so unfair.

A rising tide lifts all yachts; it's so unfair that our best and...well, BEST have to pay to support the peons. You can't have a really grand empire without having a glittering aristocracy.

[Fovea]

10. Ah, I get it now....

Halliburton is building debtors camps around America, not camps for dissidents, unless they owe money, the deadbeats...

[lovuian]

12. We are going through the Robber baron times

a repeat in history