A Study You Can Trust

As the Labor day weekend approaches, we get this report from the Economic Policy Institute:

Wealth inequality is vast and growing

As the figure indicates, wealth inequality has not only persisted, but also grown much larger over time. The richest 1% of wealth holders had 125 times the wealth of the typical household in 1962; by 2004 they had 190 times as much or $14.8 million in wealth for the upper 1% compared to just $82,000 for the household in the middle fifth of wealth.

For those depressed by the news, there is this burnt potato morsel to feast on:

Poverty rate unchanged at 12.6 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's poverty rate was essentially unchanged last year, the first year it hasn't increased since before President Bush took office.

The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 37 million Americans were living under the poverty line last year -- about 12.6 percent of the population. That's down from 12.7 percent in 2004, but census officials said the change was statistically insignificant...

...However, the number of people without health insurance increased to 46.6 million in 2005. About 45.3 million people were without insurance the year before.

The last decline in the poverty rate was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when it dropped to 11.3 percent.

(yes, my emphasis)