eom

To actually visualise what's going on, you'd want the four sources of income shown to scale, I think.

... that these are standard Lorenz curves which are designed to show inequalities in distribution irrespective of absolute values or population sizes. In this way various societies of differing wealth and population size can be compared on a single factor. I think a more intuitively useful use for this type of graph would be to show various countries based on one factor, such as labor income.

It seems like another on of those "duh" social science studies - the conclusion that rich people earn more through capital than do middle or lower class people is not a big surprise.

It's cumulative when it doesn't need to be.

It's a common myth with the Right. It might work out that way on your own FARM but not on a job that pays by the hour. It doesn't matter if you process $40 worth of profit for the company in an hour or $4,000,000, you still get the same meager pay.

It's like talking to a brick wall sometimes reminding these people there is such a thing as the "idle rich". They really believe "hard work" and DEVOTION AKA: LOYALTY will be rewarded.

I've heard one of these idiots recently at a gathering saying to a minimum wage worker, "Of course you aren't a success! Bosses don't promote people who gripe."

It is related to the Gini coefficient calculation.

... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_curve

As noted by the poster below, the Gini coefficient is derived from it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient

... standard or not, the chart is not the best way to make the point of the title of this thread.

If I have to read a Wikipedia article about the chart to begin to make sense of it, then it kind of fails. I am not without some math education.

I'm sure a different graphical technique would make the point obvious, but until I decipher the chart I don't know what it is exactly.

All the same, thanks OP for posting it.

Perhaps it would make more sense to have one which shows how much from each source each quintile gets their money.

And to be fair, you need to have a section for transfer payments, such as welfare, Social Security, pensions. Pretty soon I'll be taking my social security. At that point around half of my income will be that.

And perhaps to divide by age would be helpful. I, like so many others, have worked for many years. Just because I'll eventually be getting all my income from social security, pension, and savings doesn't mean I'll be a deadbeat at that point.

... some of these points are mentioned in the "limitations" section of this wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient#Limitations_of_Gini_coefficient

but hadn't read about it in detail.