Poor Just Keep Getting Poorer

Here is data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office:

	QUINTILES					TOP
Year	1	2	3	4	5	10%	5%	1%
1979	6.8	12.3	16.5	22.3	42.4	27.6	18.1	7.5
2007	4.9	9.4	14.1	20	52.5	38.7	29.3	17.1

It shows the Household (which differs from family) income shares of after-tax income for each quintile of the population. After tax income takes into account not only taxes but also transfer payments such as food stamps, Medicare, Social Security and the like.

Notice that 80% of the population experienced a drop in relative shares at the expense of the top 20%. Notice that the top 1% received 17.1% of total income in 2007 compared to 7.5% in 1979.

In 2007, everyone with a Household after-tax income of $74,700 (the minimum to get into the top 20%) or less was in the bottom 80% of Household income recipients.

One could summarize the Reagan Revolution as one that transferred income from the bottom 80% of Households to the top 20% of households.