Perhaps the most common measure of income inequality in a nation is the Gini Coefficient (aka the "Gini Ratio"), which ranks the amount of inequality there is in a country on a scale from 0, which represents perfect equality, where everyone would have an equal share of the nation's income, to a value of 1, which represents perfect inequality, where one person would have all the income, but everyone else has none.
So now, thanks to so much media attention being focused on the Occupy Wall Street "movement" (aka "politically-oriented publicity stunt"), where many activists (aka "not-too-bright people") appear to be upset at "the Top 1%" (aka "really high income earners"), who they claim have "gotten too rich" (aka "earned a high income by doing things that satisfy other people's needs"), we thought we'd use the "Gini coefficient" (aka "a well-established mathematically-based method for measuring inequality") to find out how out of whack things have become in the United States over the years.
Or more specifically, the years from 1994 through 2010, for which the U.S. Census has published detailed data related to the incomes earned by Americans based on their annual surveys of the U.S. population. Our chart showing the trend in income inequality for all individuals as measured by the Gini ratio for these years is below:
We were shocked to see the overall trend from 1994 through 2010 take the path it has, because it's so completely contrary to what we keep hearing in the news.
We only ask that someone ask the media for their reaction to this disturbing data!
Data Sources
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of Persons 15 Years and Over, By Total Money Income in 1994, Work Experience in 1994 and Sex. September 1995.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of Persons 15 Years and Over, By Total Money Income in 1995, Work Experience in 1995 and Sex. September 1996.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of Persons 15 Years and Over, By Total Money Income in 1996, Work Experience in 1996 and Sex. September 1997.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of Persons 15 Years and Over, By Total Money Income in 1997, Work Experience in 1997 and Sex. September 1998.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of Persons 15 Years and Over, By Total Money Income in 1998, Work Experience in 1998 and Sex. September 1999.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 1999, Work Experience in 1999, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2000.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2000, Work Experience in 2000, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2001.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2001, Work Experience in 2001, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2002.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2002, Work Experience in 2002, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2003.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2003, Work Experience in 2003, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2004.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2004, Work Experience in 2004, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2005.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2005, Work Experience in 2005, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2006.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2006, Work Experience in 2006, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2007.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2007, Work Experience in 2007, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2008.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2008, Work Experience in 2008, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2009.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2009, Work Experience in 2009, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2010.
U.S. Census. Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement. Table PINC-01. Selected Characteristics of People 15 Years and Over By Total Money Income in 2010, Work Experience in 2010, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. September 2011.
Labels: income distribution, income inequality, satire
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