Historic Income Distribution

[Owen Densmore]

I've often thought the huge wealth of the top 1% was common, and only became more equitable in the post ww2 era with lots of mfg jobs, GI Bill, Interstate Highway initiative and so on.

I realize that's not very popular, the common notion is that it has been getting worse forever and especially now.

So I happened across this:

  http://scalar.usc.edu/works/growing-apart-a-political-history-of-american-inequality/index

.. with this chart (just look at the blue):

Sure enough, the Life of Reilly years were saner .. post war to mid 1980s.

It's also interesting to play with the drop-down menus, changing the policy numbers, and the top percentage.

I wonder what periods of human history have also been equitable? Possibly wars? Revolutions?

   -- Owen

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[Robert Holmes-3]

Interesting site, thanks for posting that.

The viz does suffer from the "missing zero" problem: the graph you show (blue line) actually only shows a doubling of the inequality measure (income share of top 1%) from about 0.1 in the 80's to about 0.2 now.

If you want to see how the hyper-wealthy are doing, take a look at top 0.01% of income share including capital gains. They have enjoyed a five-fold (five!) increase in their share in the same period.

On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 12:49 PM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

I've often thought the huge wealth of the top 1% was common, and only became more equitable in the post ww2 era with lots of mfg jobs, GI Bill, Interstate Highway initiative and so on.

I realize that's not very popular, the common notion is that it has been getting worse forever and especially now.

So I happened across this:

  http://scalar.usc.edu/works/growing-apart-a-political-history-of-american-inequality/index

.. with this chart (just look at the blue):

Sure enough, the Life of Reilly years were saner .. post war to mid 1980s.

It's also interesting to play with the drop-down menus, changing the policy numbers, and the top percentage.

I wonder what periods of human history have also been equitable? Possibly wars? Revolutions?

   -- Owen

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

[Owen Densmore]

Now if it actually went back to Columbus, that would be fab!

But I believe it is the case that the post war era was unique. The GI bill was a winner, and naturally all the jobs, including the interstates too.

I'd like to know if there were other such eras anywhere, not just the US.

On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 2:53 PM, Robert Holmes <[hidden email]> wrote:

Interesting site, thanks for posting that.

The viz does suffer from the "missing zero" problem: the graph you show (blue line) actually only shows a doubling of the inequality measure (income share of top 1%) from about 0.1 in the 80's to about 0.2 now.

If you want to see how the hyper-wealthy are doing, take a look at top 0.01% of income share including capital gains. They have enjoyed a five-fold (five!) increase in their share in the same period.

On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 12:49 PM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

I've often thought the huge wealth of the top 1% was common, and only became more equitable in the post ww2 era with lots of mfg jobs, GI Bill, Interstate Highway initiative and so on.

I realize that's not very popular, the common notion is that it has been getting worse forever and especially now.

So I happened across this:

  http://scalar.usc.edu/works/growing-apart-a-political-history-of-american-inequality/index

.. with this chart (just look at the blue):

Sure enough, the Life of Reilly years were saner .. post war to mid 1980s.

It's also interesting to play with the drop-down menus, changing the policy numbers, and the top percentage.

I wonder what periods of human history have also been equitable? Possibly wars? Revolutions?

   -- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove