THIS IS NOT RIGHT (Wealth Distribution in the U.S.)

This is absolutely not how it should be. This pie chart shows the shocking distribution of wealth in the United States in the year 2007, when the financial system began to unravel. Keep in mind: 70% of economic activity in the United States is consumer spending. 80% of the population looks relatively unable to keep up with the “market will bear” pricing curve that the top 20% dominate.

Here’s another look at real income distribution in the United States:

How can we have real democracy, when so few people are actually able to access the currency of our economy? How can we have real democracy when this vast wealth gap dominates our economic landscape, even as opaque, monied interests are allowed to spend unprecedented, unlimited sums to influence our elections?

Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph is Executive Director of Citizens' Climate International. He represents Citizens’ Climate in the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, the UNFCCC negotiations, and other UN processes. He is the lead strategist supporting the Acceleration Dialogues (diplomatic climate-solutions roundtables) and Resilience Intel—an effort to move the world to 100% climate-smart finance. He is Senior Advisor Sustainable Finance for the EAT Foundation, where he served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase from April through November 2020, and now serves on the Secretariat of the Good Food Finance Network. He is founder of Geoversiv and a lead contributor to the Earth Intelligence podcast. He publishes a free newsletter at LivingFutures.net

3 responses to THIS IS NOT RIGHT (Wealth Distribution in the U.S.)

Not Every American “Owes” the Same on the National Debt « Independents of Principle

July 14, 2011

[…] the United States, at present, there is a tragic wealth divide that has, for decades, been eroding the middle class. The wealthy hold most of the wealth and take […]

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Tax Cuts for the Wealthy DO NOT Create Jobs

December 14, 2011

[…] SOME DATA: The top 20% of the socio-economic pyramid in our country control well more than 80% of all the wealth. Just the top 1% control 40% of all financial investment assets. […]

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LK

May 23, 2012

is this not the eternal battle?

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