USA 1966 to 2011: One inch (for the bottom 90 percent) versus 4.9 miles (for the top .01 percent).

from David Ruccio

In the United States as David Cay Johnston explains,

In 2011 the average AGI [adjusted gross income] of the vast majority fell to $30,437 per taxpayer, its lowest level since 1966 when measured in 2011 dollars. The vast majority averaged a mere $59 more in 2011 than in 1966. For the top 10 percent, by the same measures, average income rose by $116,071 to $254,864, an increase of 84 percent over 1966.

Plot those numbers on a chart, with one inch for $59, and the top 10 percent’s line would extend more than 163 feet. 

Now compare the vast majority’s $59 with the top 1 percent, and that line extends for 884 feet. The top 1 percent of the top 1 percent, whose 2011 average income of $23.7 million was $18.4 million more per taxpayer than in 1966, would require a line nearly five miles long.

Got it? One inch (for the bottom 90 percent) versus 4.9 miles (for the top .01 percent).

The result was that, between 1966 and 2011, the income share of the bottom 90 percent fell from 66.3 percent to 51.8 percent.