Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Breaking Out the 0.1%

Greg Mankiw outlines who earns the 0.1% of national income:

Here is an interesting paper that answers the question. Some highlights from Table 3 about the top 0.1 percent:
  • 18 percent are financial professionals.
  • 42 percent are executives, managers, or supervisors in nonfinancial businesses. More than half of those are in closely-held (presumably often small) businesses.
  • 7 percent are lawyers.
  • 6 percent are in medicine.
  • 3 percent are in arts, media, or sports.
  • Less than 1 percent are professors or scientists.

Note that this is only as of 2005 (my guess is financial professional income spiked as a percent of 0.1% of income from 2005 to 2008). It also doesn't show that the 0.1% earned 2.8% of all income in 1979, but 7.3% in 2005, or how much the above figures changed over the years. The latter is outlined below (i.e. the shift to finance was dramatic).

1 comment:

  1. I would like to comment about the current condition of the american economy. This is one of the hardest periods in the countries history. Their does not seem to be any consensus about the trends for the economy one week the economic news is good the next week its bad. Their seems to be no consistency what so ever when it comes to economic matters. Mcdonald’s recently hired fifty or sixty thousand people out of one million that applied maybe mcdonald’s should change their saying you deserve a break today at mcdonald’s to you deserve a job today at mcdonald’s. As far as those banksters go I say lets exchange those three piece suits and briefcases for a pick' a shovel' a bucket' and some pinstripes. Inflation Is the primary reason for much of the growing income inequality between the rich and the poor. It is also I believe the cause of the decline of the middle class. When ever the employing class and by Employing class I Mean anyone or any company That hires personal And gives them a regular paycheck. Their is always a tendency to undercompensate your personal less and less over time simply because when prices rise wages generally lag increases in prices at least for a substantial portion of the working population. Workers do not have much ability to control their wages and benifits. But companies that employ personal have much to say about the wages and benifits that their employees receive. Companies have been undercompensating their personal for decades in an attempt to increase their bottom lines. They have been systematically undercompensating their personal less than the increase in prices on purpose. The result is many workers have little income left over for any purpose other than basic needs food' rent' necessary clothing' utilities' medical bills' Its no wonder that the economy is in serious trouble.
    The inequality seems to be increasing while the economy declines.

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