Income Inequality Still Growing

Alex Henderson notes that the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is going to make inequality worse in the U.S. and quotes Warren Buffett.

[T]he wealth of the 400 [richest people in America] increased 29-fold—from $93 billion to $2.7 trillion—while many millions of hardworking citizens remained stuck on an economic treadmill. During this period, the tsunami of wealth didn’t trickle down. It surged upward.

The U.S. compares unfavorably to Europe.

The 2018 World Inequality Report ... paints a troubling picture of the United States' wealth distribution. According to the study, the top 1 percent of wage earners went from owning 11 percent of the national income in 1980 to 20 percent in 2016. The bottom 50 percent's share of the national income dropped from 21 to 13 percent over the same time period. In Western Europe, the 1 percent's control of national incomes has risen from 10 to 12 percent, while the bottom 50 percent's share has held steady at 23 percent—undesirable, perhaps, but decidedly more equal.

Update (February 16, 2019):  How bad does it have to be if Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says income inequality is the country's biggest challenge? He notes that income growth for most people has decreased while "growth at the top has been very strong".