AND SO THE STORY BEGINS ... AND RIGHTLY SO WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT STATISTIC IN A CAPITALISTIC SOCIETY ... NAMELY THOSE INDIVIDUALS GAINFULLY EMPLOYED AND LIVING WITH THE DIGNITY OF BEING ABLE TO SUPPORT THEIR FAMILIES.
THE ABOVE CHART REMINDS ME OF THE FROST POEM ... TWO ROADS DIVERGED IN THE WOOD ... WELL LOOKS LIKE WE TOOK THE WRONG ROAD!
The share of total federal income taxes paid by the top 1 percent of tax filers increased to 40.42 percent in 2007, the tax share of the top 5 percent climbed to 60.63 percent, and that of the top 10 percent to 71.22 percent, according to new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data. The tax shares are the highest on record for these groups based on comparable IRS data going back to 1986. The top 1 percent of taxpayers would bear the brunt of the surtax proposed by Congressional Democrats to help pay for their flawed health care proposal. |
WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to a key Census Bureau measure, income inequality has been unchanged since 2000. The Census Bureau recently confirmed that no statistically significant change in the inequality measure occurred between 2000 and 2007, the last year for which data are available. The measure referred to here is known as the Gini coefficient, a standard gauge of income inequality published by the Census Bureau and widely used by economists and other researchers. |
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variability and Mutability" (Italian: Variabilità e mutabilità)[1][2]
The Gini coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a distribution, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality. It has found application in the study of inequalities in disciplines as diverse as economics, health science, ecology, chemistry and engineering.
It is commonly used as a measure of inequality of income orwealth.[3] Worldwide, Gini coefficients for income range from approximately 0.23 (Sweden) to 0.70 (Namibia) although not every country has been assessed.
Gini coefficient of income distributions
While developed European nations and Canada tend to have Gini indices between 24 and 36, the United States' and Mexico's Gini indices are both above 40, indicating that the United States and Mexico have greater inequality. Using the Gini can help quantify differences in welfare and compensation policies and philosophies. However it should be borne in mind that the Gini coefficient can be misleading when used to make political comparisons between large and small countries (see criticisms section).
The Gini index for the entire world has been estimated by various parties to be between 56 and 66.[5][6]
[edit]US income Gini indices over time
- 1929: 45.0 (estimated)
- 1947: 37.6 (estimated)
- 1967: 39.7 (first year reported)
- 1968: 38.6 (lowest index reported)
- 1970: 39.4
- 1980: 40.3
- 1990: 42.8
- 2000: 46.2 [10]
- 2005: 46.9
- 2006: 47.0 (highest index reported)
- 2007: 46.3
- 2008: 46.69
- 2009: 46.8
