The left will have you believe that the exact same people reside in the top 1%, or their new favorite, the 0.01%. Do you know who those people are? The wealthy individuals who want to take all of your wealth, destroy the planet and eat your souls!
In reality, everyone’s income status changes throughout their lives; one year they may be in the top 10%, one year they may be in the top 3%.
On Tuesday, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) posted an interesting chart that highlights the percentage of adults in the United States and their various years in the top 10% of income distributions.
Simply put: Americans may be rich in one chapter of their life and poor in another chapter.
Here is the chart:
Mark Perry writes:
“More than half of American adults (53.1%) will be in the top 10% of the income distribution for one or more years between the ages of 25 and 60. But staying in the top 10% is much less likely, and only about one in three Americans (35.4%) will remain in the top 10% for two consecutive years between ages of 25 and 60, about one in four (26.7%) for three or more consecutive years, about one in five (21.7%) for four or more years, and only about one in 13 (7.8%) will stay in the top 10% for ten consecutive years or more.
Don’t the Hirschl and Rank findings above of significant income mobility (including the fact that nearly 70% of Americans make it into the top 20% for at least one year and nearly 62% for at least two years) pretty much destroy the narrative of income inequality being the “defining challenge of our time” that we heard about from Obama?”
This is definitely something to be grateful for on Thanksgiving: income mobility.
Depending on how hard you work or how you invest your money, you cane be affluent or impecunious. It is entirely your choice.
90% of the U.S. population still have 14.4% of wealth. I know the slice of the pie was 50% larger back in 1989. I am nevertheless grateful that the transfer from the poor and middle class to the wealthy as been slow. Perhaps it will stop someday soon with tax reform.