the wealth gap study

Question 1

the purchasing power of the median income family rose to _$ in 2004, and _$ since 1980

Answer 1

54 thousand - 8,228

Question 2

americas net worth increased in real constant dollar terms from _$ in 1980, to _$ in 2007

Answer 2

25 trillion - 57 trillion

Question 3

more wealth was created in the United States in the past…

Answer 3

25 years than in the previous 200 years

Question 4

in _ only _ families earned an income of

_$ or more (in real income), where as now almost …

Answer 4

1967 - one in 25 - 100,00 - one in four families do.

Question 5

a recent study by the congressional budget office (may 2007), showed that…

Answer 5

from 1994 to 2004, of all americans, the poorest enjoyed the highest percentage increase in there incomes.

Question 6

a 2007 a report by the treasury department measured income mobility from 1996 to 2005 and concluded that.. By comparison, the top quintile raised its median income by

Answer 6

those in the bottom 20% of wage earners improved there median income by 109% (inflation adjusted)

a modest 8.5%

Question 7

the treasury report, examining returns for a huge sample of _ tax payers concluded …

Answer 7

168,300,
“economic growth resulted in rising incomes for most tax payers over the period of 1996 to 2005. the real incomes of 2/3 of all tax payers increased over this period. further, the median income of those initially in the lower income groups increased more than the median incomes of those in the higher income groups.”

Question 8

how could the wealth gap possibly increase?

Answer 8

the answer involves a statistical anomaly and the contradiction between government figures measuring income rise and percentage terms, and numbers that report the rich and poor gap in raw dollars.

Question 9

imagine two citizens the well to do smith and the struggling jones.

Answer 9

smith earns $200,000 a year and increases his income by an impressive 10%.

Question 10

jones on the other hand bring home only

Answer 10

$20,000 dollars a year but succeeds in raising his earnings by a spectacular 20%.

Question 11

that means jones receives only

Answer 11

24,000 the next year, while smith gets 220,000$.

Question 12

even though the poor hard working jones has

Answer 12

lifted his earnings twice as fast as the wealthy smith, the income gap between them has still increased form 180,000 to 196.000,

Question 13

because jones starts from a much lower base income…

Answer 13

even a more rapid improvement cant stop the expansion of the over all earnings differential.