I remember the days of “Occupy Wall Street,” when thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the huge income inequality in our country. Personally, I remember that movement with deep emotion because all three of my young adult children participated.
They marched, they held signs, they demanded that the wealthy begin to pay their fair share in taxes.
All three were arrested together on the Brooklyn Bridge on the night of October 1, 2011. It was the scariest night of my life. On a more positive note, my daughter met her future husband that day, but I didn’t know that when I was awake all night waiting to hear that my children were safe.
After the Occupy Wall Street protests, the phrases “one percent” and “99 percent” came into the mainstream. They were even heard during the current presidential campaign. The topic of income inequality is discussed everywhere now.
So here we are, five years after those protests. Many of us wonder just how unequal the wealth distribution in the United States is.
CNN Money reports that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) looked at this question. What is found is upsetting, but not particularly surprising.
The CBO found that the most wealthy 10 percent of American families now control 76 percent of the national wealth. Yikes.
https://twitter.com/AmerParty/status/766829763168116736
The next 40 percent of American families control 23 percent of the wealth.
So let’s look at this in a slightly different way. These figures mean that 99 percent of the entire wealth of this country is controlled by the wealthiest 50 percent of families.
More shockingly, that means that the remaining 50 percent of American families share a paltry one percent of all of the money in this country.
How can that even be possible?
The study also showed that the rich keep on getting richer.
Looking at wealth from 1989 to 2013, the study found that families at the 90th percentile saw their wealth increase by 54 percent. Those at the 50th percentile of wealth only saw an increase of four percent in the same time period.
Those at the 25th percentile saw their wealth decrease by six percent.
Occupy Wall Street was right. We are living in a country were more and more of the national wealth is concentrated in the hands of the filthy rich elite at the top of the heap. Fewer and fewer Americans control more and more of the money.
Occupy Wall Street was right. The CBO just proved it.
Watch this video about the growing inequality:
Featured image by Timothy Krause via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons Attribution Generic license 2.0
