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Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by rayiner on Friday September 09, 2011 @03:45PM (#2979548)
These are household income quantiles, not personal income quantiles. It's not stated on the chart, but that lines up better with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_...
Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by mistermann on Friday September 09, 2011 @04:42PM (#2979758)
Furthermore, running $1 trillion deficits helps.

$1 trillion / 153 million workforce = ~$6500 / worker = $13,000 per household

It's not too hard to imagine that somehow this money tends to flow moreso towards people in the upper quintile (straight wage-earners would miss out, whereas the investing class has many avenues to receive it), so it wouldn't surprise me at all that 1 household could end up with their "share" plus that of 2 others, so: $13,000 * 3 = $39,000 household income based on govt deficit spending $112,541 - $39,000 = $73,500 household, /2 = 36,500 per person in "real", non-deficit enhanced earnings required to make the top quintile.

Made up entirely, but I don't think it is an unrealistic scenario at all. The enormous deficits we are now running can go a long way in hiding the truth for a very long time. Meanwhile, the debt grows and grows, and the interest on that debt gets larger every year. I just don't see how debt is inconsequential, but the vast majority of people seem to act as if it is (at least those who are even aware of it).

Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by pinko on Friday September 09, 2011 @04:10PM (#2979646)
Yes -- many families have shifted from single to dual-earner in order to maintain the same standard of living, so the household income charts really understate the decline in individual wages over this period.
Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by klbarry on Friday September 09, 2011 @04:29PM (#2979708)
That is not true. They vastly overstate the decline in wages, due to the rise of more single person households. See: http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=a7jenngfc4um7_&#...

Individual wages have risen steadily since 1910, with no gaps. The household income chart is a misleading chart.

Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by william42 on Friday September 09, 2011 @07:03PM (#2980178)
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=a7jenngfc4um7_&#...

This is a log-scale graph, which is what you want in order to compare rates of increase. You can see sort of an inflection point around the early 80s, but I'm not sure if it's significant.

Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by woobar on Friday September 09, 2011 @08:13PM (#2980315)
This chart has nothing to do with individual wages.

This is a sum of all incomes from all possible sources devided by population.

Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by iaskwhy on Friday September 09, 2011 @05:10PM (#2979887)
Does this take into account inflation? It could be that they are actually decreasing with inflation. I don't think it's like that but I'm just curious.
Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by klbarry on Friday September 09, 2011 @05:54PM (#2980016)
Either way, it shows the growth as steady, since inflation has not been particularly high in the last 20 years.
Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by cperciva on Friday September 09, 2011 @06:25PM (#2980097)
Note: That graph is personal income per capita, not personal income per worker or per hour worked.
Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by klbarry on Friday September 09, 2011 @07:30PM (#2980242)
Re:Share of Income Gains by Quintile - Great Depression til Now by dogwelder on Friday September 09, 2011 @08:51PM (#2980390)
That chart shows per capita income without adjusting for inflation. It's not very useful for drawing conclusions about real income.

And per capita is a simple average, while looking at medians or quintiles gives you a clearer picture. Per capita, a roomful of middle class workers all become billionaires if Bill Gates walks in.