Wall Street Protests

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Oh come on... that's a cheap shot.

What are you trying to say ?

One of the main arguments justifying OWS is that income disparity has been increasing rapidly over the past 20 - 30 years. UT's graph shows that while the top 1% more or less steadily gained a higher percentage of income, besides late 80's and early 00's, that the great recession actually hurt the 1% harder in proportion terms.

While it does slightly invalidate OWS's argument, especially against the argument that the top 1% weren't affected by the recession at all, it doesn't predict the future and it doesn't take the sensitivity difference from income loss into account either, your argument that people in the middle and lower class are hurt more from a 10% drop in income than someone in the upper class is from a 20% drop. From the graph, I would guess that the top 1% would continue their increase at some point and eventually pass their previous highest income share percentage.