The United States is "seeing greater income inequality now than any time since the 1920s."
Barack Obama on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 in Democratic debate in Philadephia
Income inequality is on the rise
"We're seeing greater income inequality now than any time since the 1920s," Obama said.
Obama is making a broad point here, but several sources support him.
The U.S. Census compiles data on income distribution on a year-to-year basis. Since 1967, it's clear that the top 5 percent of all households are capturing a growing share of the nation's aggregate income.
From 1917 to 1998, the income share of the top 10 percent dropped and then began rising again, following a U-shaped curve, according to a historical analysis of U.S. tax returns by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez published in 2003 in the Quarterly Journal of Economics .
Piketty and Saez found that economic inequality grew further by 2005. That year, the top 1 percent of Americans — people with incomes of more than $348,000 — received their largest share of national income since 1928.
Critics may argue whether this change in income distribution is significant or not, or what it's underlying causes are. Earlier in this campaign, Hillary Clinton argued that George W. Bush was to blame, a statement we found only Half-True . But the numbers show that income inequality is at a record high since the 1920s, so we find Obama's statement to be True.
Published: Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 12:00 a.m.
Subjects: Economy
Sources:
U.S. Census Bureau, Historical aggregate income, by fifths and top 5 percentQuarterly Journal of Economics, Income Inequality in the United States , February 2003
New York Times, Income gap is widening, data shows , March 29, 2007
PolitiFact.com, Can't blame Bush , Nov. 17, 2007
Written by: Wes Allison, Angie Drobnic Holan
Researched by: Angie Drobnic Holan
Edited by: Amy Hollyfield
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