General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWide and growing income gaps
A state by state analysis
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3860
I have to note though - they look at two income gaps
1. The gap between the lowest quintile (20% of the population) and the highest quintile
2. The gap between the lowest quintile and the top 5%
and
income over $101,582 puts you in the top 20%
income over $186,000 puts you in the top 5%
according to census measures here http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/inequality/index.html
I also would note that policies like the payroll tax cut and the 73% Bush tax cut (Obama's plan to keep 73% (or more) of the Bush tax cuts) increase those gaps by giving more benefits to the top 20% than they do to the bottom 20%.
Under Obama's plan
the bottom 20% gets $14 billion in tax cuts
the top 20% gets $163 billion in tax cuts
the top 5% get $80 billion in tax cuts
the top 1% get $40 billion in tax cuts
the bottom 40% gets $42 billion in tax cuts
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxcompromise2010.pdf
Another $150 billion added to the wealth gap, but who's counting?
Autumn
(45,106 posts)Good question, who's counting?
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)But he's updated his figures. Obama's plan makes permanent 78% of the Bush tax cuts, not 73%.
My bad, I was using 2011 data.
But he doesn't do a distributional analysis is this report http://www.ctj.org/pdf/obamabudgetfy2013.pdf
Also, I am not sure how the cost went from $301 billion to just $144 billion for 2012, although Obama has modified his plan some. Maybe the other number was for two years instead of just one, as it was about a two year extension of the Bush tax cuts. But it said 2011 cost $301 billion, and the new table shows only $144 billion in tax cuts for 2012.
what a boring topic
inequality? Who cares?