What if the middle-class kept up with the top 1 percent?

From an article on CBSNews.com

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-if-the-middle-class-kept-up-with-the-top-1-percent/



But what would have happened if every household on Main Street had enjoyed the same income growth as the country's top 1 percent? The result: the typical American middle-class household would be earning $156,318, or more than double its actual current average household income of $73,391, according to data from the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute. (The EPI considers the middle class to between 20 percent to 80 percent of the country's income range.)

Some might scoff at the unlikelihood of the typical middle-class American household earning that much, but the calculation is designed to underscore how the fortunes of the country's top 1 percent have deviated so drastically from everyone else's. While it's not a new phenomenon, since the top 1 percent started to pull away from the rest of America's earners in 1980, that pattern has only accelerated.

The top 1 percent of American families saw their income jump 21.2 percent last year, compared with only 3.3 percent for the bottom 99 percent, according to research published last month from economist Emmanuel Saez.

"As to why the top 1 percent have done so well, I think that a key driver has been intentional policy decisions that shifted bargaining power from low and moderate wage workers to corporate managers and capital-owners," EPI director of research and policy Josh Bivens wrote in an email. "The laundry list of those changes is long."



The article is worth a read, and should be shared on social media as it lays out the facts very well (that most people here already understand).

Also, the comments section of that article has been inundated by right wing trolls and could use some DU love.