Some people have made money over the last 30 years

Paul Krugman recently posted this arresting chart (itself culled from Emmanuel Saez) that once again reveals the unhealthy amounts of inequality our society contains.

It’s important to not reach any causative conclusions, but there is a lot of interesting correlation.  Obviously, wealth was most concentrated before the two great crashes, i.e. the Great Depression and the Great Recession (now).  The wealthy earn a lot less during times of war, probably because of taxation to fund the war effort (steep drops during WWI and WWII).  After WWII, the wealthiest Americans controlled the least wealth they ever had, but, as we all know, the economy did great.  In fact, the thirty years after WWII were the best years to be middle class: low inflation and steady wage gains meant everyone felt like their lot was improving.  The wealthiest controlled very little of national income during the decade of stagflation, but anyone blaming that period on the small decrease in their income that started around 1972 is clearly ideological.  As I’ve said elsewhere, taxes on the affluent do not like they have any impact on economic growth.   Show me someone who will pass up a raise, and I’ll show you a pig that flies.