Citizen G'kar: Musings on Earth

December 14, 2007

The Rich Keep Getting Richer

Why has so many in the middle class voted Republican over the years? They haven't been paying attention.
Paul Krugman
Here’s what the numbers say about percentage gains in after-tax income from 2003 to 2005:


Bottom quintile: 2%
Next quintile: 2.4%
Middle quintile: 3.9%
Fourth quintile: 3.7%
Top quintile: 16%


Top 10%: 20.9%
Top 5%: 27.7%
Top 1%: 43.5%


It was a boom, all right — but only for a few people.


One other thing that’s striking from the report, by the way, is that over the 26 years the estimates span, the only significant gains for the bottom two quintiles, and most of the gains for the middle quintile, took place during the Clinton years.

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