Income inequality in the USA

The Economist carries a short feature on the scale of income inequality in the USA and finds that a quarter of America’s total income is earned by the top 1% of the population.

“The concentration of income earned by this top percentile now stands at its highest since 1928. Two-thirds of the country’s total gains in the five years to 2007 accrued to the top 1%, whereas the bottom 90th percentile saw only 12% of the extra income.”

We have been looking at income inequality as part of our study on measuring the standard of living. Wikipedia carries up to date information on measures such as the Gini coefficient for countries where the relevant data is available.

Video Resources on Rising Inequality [23 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: A Jobs Boost for the US Economy [8 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Exchange Rate Economics - Where next for the US Dollar? [31 Dec 2011]
2011 in Review - The US Economy [27 Dec 2011]
Great Blog to Follow - Joseph Rowntree Foundation [22 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Cartoon on inequality - perfect for explaining analysis and evaluation! [16 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: America’s hour-glass economy [9 Nov 2011]
US Budget Visualised [7 Nov 2011]
Tour of the US income distribution – “The L Curve” [25 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
The Return of Protectionism? [12 Oct 2011]
Using Timetric in the Classroom [27 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Income and Wealth in the UK [12 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Inequality and Development [12 Sep 2011]
Mixing with the Nobel Economists [4 Sep 2011]
Development Econ: Wealth and Inequality in China [10 Jun 2011]
Not so much food inflation, but food hyperinflation! [30 May 2011]
AS economics: Using the cost-benefit principle [18 May 2011]
Review of “Adapt” by Tim Harford [9 May 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Poverty [15 Apr 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Solar Panels and Economies of Scale [11 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Unemployment in the US Economy [1 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Unemployment Rates for Selected Countries [12 Mar 2011]
Dambisa Moyo - How the West was Lost [11 Mar 2011]
The minimum wage - summed up in one cartoon! [8 Mar 2011]
Video Resources on UK Relative Poverty [7 Mar 2011]
Tony Atkinson on Inequality - LSE Lecture Notes [1 Mar 2011]
David Smith on Shifting Sands in the Global Economy [8 Feb 2011]
More inequality - and it’s a good thing! [2 Feb 2011]
Inequality on the rise [29 Jan 2011]
Using Google Docs - Minimum Wages [27 Nov 2010]
Barriers to Entry: Cutting it in the USA [8 Nov 2010]
The Costs and Benefits of Inequality [17 Oct 2010]
Where Do I fit in? [6 Oct 2010]
Video resources on UK economic growth [6 Oct 2010]
Data Mining on Global Poverty [14 Sep 2010]
Fears rise for a double dip over the pond [25 Aug 2010]
Coalition Budget hits poor [25 Aug 2010]
Inequality and the risk of financial crisis [25 Aug 2010]
Brazil - the country of the future - and always will be [31 May 2010]
Warnings of hysteresis for the EU economy [29 May 2010]
What the poverty figures show [25 May 2010]
Revision Presentation - US Economy Chartroom [23 May 2010]
A2 Economics Revision - The US and the UK Economy [23 May 2010]
A2 Economics Revision - Data Description Revision on BoP [22 May 2010]
The Financial Crisis and Beyond [6 May 2010]
Links to recent IFS Research [27 Apr 2010]
RES Essay Competition - Inequality Title [1 Apr 2010]
Demographic shifts - and working with China [31 Mar 2010]
Carlos Slim - Monopoly and a Licence to Print Money [12 Mar 2010]
More on poverty strategies [4 Feb 2010]
Child Poverty and Pensioner Poverty [2 Feb 2010]
Assorted Links (27 Jan 2010): Focus on poverty and inequality [27 Jan 2010]
Low pay, discrimination and monopsony power in the labour market [26 Jan 2010]
Krugman on Chinese mercantilism [1 Jan 2010]
New figures show extent of wealth inequality in the UK [11 Dec 2009]
Really clear income inequality chart [2 Dec 2009]
Guardian’s World Economic Cycle Guide [30 Oct 2009]
Sugar prices and production and investment incentives [23 Oct 2009]
Are the Japanese the latest victims of a strengthening currency? [28 Sep 2009]
Paul Mason on Economic Aftershocks [21 Sep 2009]
Marx and the labour theory of value [7 Sep 2009]
One family in six in the UK has no one in work [27 Aug 2009]
What happens when the hose pipe is turned off? [23 Aug 2009]
What is poverty? [31 Jul 2009]
Economics Snapshot - The Impact of Tax and Benefits on Inequality [30 Jul 2009]
Britain’s Got Talent and Behavioural Economics [8 Jun 2009]
Truck tariffs and unintended consequences [10 May 2009]
Policy Failure - Rising Inequality [10 May 2009]
Recession cuts the US trade deficit in half [27 Apr 2009]
New Deal Videos [12 Apr 2009]
Hard Labour for the US Economy [6 Apr 2009]
Mexico - a rough deal from NAFTA? [27 Mar 2009]
Imbalances and the Economic Crisis [15 Mar 2009]
Trade Imbalances - Presentation [12 Feb 2009]
AS Macro: US Economic Recession in Charts [7 Feb 2009]
Downturn USA [28 Dec 2008]
Trends in UK Income Inequality [17 Dec 2008]
The Fed Reaches the Floor [17 Dec 2008]
Another Fed Rate Cut - Close to the Floor? [29 Oct 2008]
General Motors - Braking to Avoid Oblivion [13 Oct 2008]
Anguished of Edinburgh [12 Aug 2008]
Globalisation and the skills bias of world trade [8 Aug 2008]
Unjust rewards? [4 Aug 2008]
Grey hairs, pensions and the trend growth rate [4 Aug 2008]
Oil prices and demand for scooters - cross elasticity [1 Jul 2008]
Meeting basic needs and wants [1 Jul 2008]
Reverse de-coupling may save the USA’s bacon [1 Jul 2008]
A2 Macro Diagrams [10 May 2008]
Brazil’s widening wealth gap [28 Apr 2008]
Labour’s failure on inequality [28 Apr 2008]
Revision: Labour Market Failure [21 Apr 2008]
Revision: Income Inequality [16 Apr 2008]
Revision: Progressive and regressive taxes [10 Apr 2008]
Interest rates, exchange rates and annual holidays [10 Apr 2008]
Policy conflict for the UK economy? [9 Apr 2008]
Contestable Markets - Online Music [4 Apr 2008]
Mind Map: Credit Crunch [16 Mar 2008]

ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER

Join over 6,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u regular Economics Resource Email Newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops + loads of great ideas for teaching economics from our blog authors.