What is this historic chaos really about? If you’ve just arrived and are observing what’s happening in the United States, you might think that our most pressing issue is that the richest among us simply aren’t rich enough – as the Trump administration and the OBBB cuts public services and benefits that will make life more precarious for millions in the name of tax breaks for the rich.

While they play out their destructive tendencies predicated on non-existent problems like DEI or in service to imagined government waste, the real goal is to have a YOYO – you’re on your own – economic system for the masses in order to transfer more income to those without need.

One of the most striking statistics on inequality is the historical trend in the share of national income received by the Top 1 Percent. Figure 1 shows that at the end of the “Roaring Twenties,” just before the Great Depression, the Top 1 Percent held about 20 percent of all income (excluding capital gains) – about where it was in 2022 (most recent data available).

Read on… https://cepr.net/publications/the-rich-are-not-rich-enough-in-america/