Recovered Or Not

Good news. If you’re in the top 10% of wealth in the US since 1971, your wealth has effectively tripled. The next 40% of wealth has doubled.

Bad news. The bottom 50% of the households have made no progress since 1971, and have a long way to go to get back to the “normal” of 2006.

Describing economics is usually done with statistics, but individuals don’t lead statistical lives. Medians and averages may improve, but the people below the median and the average are justified in feeling that the recovery hasn’t helped them. Such differences create divisions socially, politically, and financially. The wider the gap, the less united the country. The last couple of years have been promising, but doubling the wealth of the poorest may take more than just another couple of years.

“Half Of American Households Are Still Poorer Than They Were Before The Great Recession” – Quartz