Who Benefits from US Prosperity?
[[ Today's comic is a chart. ]]
[[ Heading: Who Benefits from the United States' Prosperity? ]]
[[ Left (vertical) heading: Percentage Change Since 1967 ]]
[[ Left scale runs from negative 40% to positive 100% in 20% increments. ]]
[[ At 0%, a horizontal line extends rightward showing the year, starting at 1965. The line is marked in 5-year increments with every 10th year labeled starting with 1970 and ending with 2010. An arrow points towards the future. ]]
[[ All lines plotted on the graph start at 0% in 1967 and end at 2010. Reading the lines from bottom-most to top-most, we have: (percentages/years are approximate) ]]
[[ Purple line, showing "Minimum Wage". ]]
[[ "Minimum Wage" immediately goes negative, down to -20% in 1973, rise to -10% in 1974 then staying in the -10 to -15% range until about 1980 when a steady slide begins, reaching about -40% in 1988. Rise to -30% in 1991, fall to -35% in 1995, rise to -25% 1997, then a steady fall back to about -40% in 2006. "Minimum wage" rises to about -20% in 2009 then slips back a little going into 2010. ]]
[[ Blue line, showing "Median household income". ]]
[[ "Median household income" starts rising to about +10% in 1969, then stays at about the +10% level, give or take, until maybe +8% in 1983. A steady rise starts in 1983, reaching a peak of +20% in 1989, then falls back to +15% in 1991. It holds at that level until 1993-4 then starts to rise, reaching +25-30% in 2000. "Median household income" then falls a little but holds about steady until 2007, then start to slide, reaching +20% in 2010. ]]
[[ Red line, showing "Income of the top 5% of households". ]]
[[ "Income of the top 5%" initially starts to fall but quickly returns to +4% by 1969. It holds steady at +4% until 1971 then it quickly rises to match the "Median household income", which it follows closely until 1981. A rise begins in 1981, reaching over +40% in 1989, but then falls to +30-35% in 1991. Slight growth from '91 to '92, then a steep rise to +60% in 1993, and a continued rise to +100% in 2000. "Income of the top 5%" fell in the early 2000s, to +85%, but recovered to +100% in 2007. Since then it has fallen to only 80% in 2010. ]]
[[ Green line, showing "US GDP per capita". ]]
[[ "US GDP per capita" has seen fairly steady growth, reaching a peak of +100% in 2007. There are plateaus or slight declines from 1969-70, 1973-75, 1977-83, 1989-91, 2000-02. Since the high in 2007, "US GDP per capita" fell back to +90% in 2009 but was growing again as it reached 2010. ]]
[[ "US GDP per capita" briefly lagged the "Median household income" from 1967 to mid 1971, but since then the gap between them has been growing steadily. ]]
[[ "US GDP per capita" was exceeded by the "Income of the top 5%" from 1993 to 2002, a difference of about 10-15% at its greatest in 2000-2001. ]]
[[ Bottom Caption: All figures adjusted for inflation. Incomes taken from the US Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/. Minimum wage taken from the US Department of Labor http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/chart.htm. US GDP per capita taken from The World Bank http://data.worldbank.org/indicator. ]]
{{alt: As the US GDP per capita continues to rise, even when adjusted for inflation, which segments of society are benefiting? }}
{{title: Unfortunately, the US Census Bureau only records the income of households and not individuals, so somewhere it should be taken into account that there are more two income households these days than there was in the past. }}