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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The 0.01% Versus the 50%

The latest Americn Census Bureau data shows that half of Americans currently falls into either the “low income” category or is living in poverty. Low-income is defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level. If poverty is measured as 50 percent of the median income, a quarter of elderly Americans are considered poor. Almost half of all U.S. children will be on food stamps during some part of their childhood.

In 2011, 4.48 percent of all income in the United States was captured by the top 0.01 percent of Americans — a group of less than 16,000 households. The average member of the top 0.01 percent made $23,679,531 in 2011; the cutoff for membership in the group was $7,969,900. For comparison, the average member of the bottom 90 percent made $30,437 in 2011

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