Top Heavy

Aug 31, 1996

Authors: Edward N. Wolff

Publisher(s): The New Press

Data in this Twentieth Century Fund Report suggests a disturbing answer. The sharp increase in inequality since the late 1970s has made the distribution of wealth in this country more unequal than in what used to be thought of as the class-ridden societies of Europe. And the situation is worsening. It threatens to turn this nation into a land of haves and have-nots, with ever fewer left in the middle. Edward N. Wolff finds that the top 1 percent of wealth holders in the United States controls 39 percent of total household wealth. Their share rose by 5 percentage points in the 1980s, while the wealth held by the bottom 40 percent showed an absolute decline and the rest did no better than stay even.