unequal representations

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graphic representations of inequality, in the United States and around the world. . .

> I use to assemble a presentation on inequality on a regular basis for my Principles of Microeconomics course (when, before my department was dissolved, I was permitted to teach it—and won a university teaching award for doing so). Here are links to the latest one, from Fall 2010, as a pdf document, a Powerpoint presentation, and a Quicktime movie.

> Folks who found my inequality presentations useful (which I haven’t updated since 2010) can now turn to the Powerpoint presentation recently assembled by Jared Bernstein and Ben Spielberg.

> Here are links to posts about inequality on this blog.

> The following are some other representations of inequality (please feel free to send me additional ones):

sef-percent-of-low-income-students-in-us-2

source

oxfam1

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inequality-690-532-19203053

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mean-median-net-worth

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inequality-recovery

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weekly-earnings

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mj-inequality

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2000-2012

saezfig1

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saezfig2

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wealth-same

income-shares-1

source [pdf]

income-shares

source [pdf]

income-growth

source [pdf]

market-income

source [pdf]

povertycounties

source [pdf]

map-south

source [pdf]

top-400

source

wages-dcj

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

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Comments
  1. Representing inequality « occasional links & commentary says:
    19 April 2010 at 6:35 pm

    […] unequal representations ← Murder in the coal fields […]

    Reply
  2. אבטלה סמויה » אבטלת סוף שבוע says:
    7 May 2010 at 11:38 am

    […] מעביר קורס על הגידול באי השיוויון בארה"ב ומציג באתר שלו כל מיני אינפוגרפיקות מעניינות בנושא . לפעמים גרף אחד […]

    Reply
  3. Magpie says:
    6 October 2010 at 1:55 am

    David,

    This is an amazing resource. I’ll make sure my comrades and mates Down Under see it.

    Thanks for making it available.

    Marco (The Magpie)

    Reply
  4. Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money « Open Economics says:
    17 October 2010 at 11:37 pm

    […] on economics, politics, and society (most recently, here and here), and he maintains a page on unequal representations which is a collection of graphic representations of inequality. This is especially important today, […]

    Reply
  5. Peter says:
    7 November 2010 at 10:53 am

    Thanks, David. This is information that must be presented again and again. I’m re-posting it to my friends and students. One problem we face, however, is getting it circulating outside the circle of those who already know. In any case, this post is a great service, as it collects a lot of important data into one place and presents it in easily comprehensible forms.

    Reply
    • David Ruccio says:
      7 November 2010 at 12:00 pm

      Dear Peter, I’m glad you find the information useful. I’ve just updated the presentation I use in my Principles of Microeconomics course, which is now available from links at the top of the page in 3 formats: pdf, Powerpoint, and Quicktime.

      Reply
  6. Unequal representations « occasional links & commentary says:
    7 November 2010 at 3:37 pm

    […] Homeaboutcrisis representationsunequal representations […]

    Reply
  7. Inequality Chartified « Open Economics says:
    8 November 2010 at 11:17 am

    […] Ruccio posted an excellent series of charts on inequality (pdf, ppt, and mov links at the top). For […]

    Reply
  8. Here’s A Jarring Guide To Wealth And Inequality In America | money news ticker says:
    8 November 2010 at 1:44 pm

    […] Dame econ professor David Ruccio has put together a fantastic presentation for his macroeconomics course (via @interfluidity) regarding wealth and inequality in the US, and how it […]

    Reply
  9. David Larsson says:
    8 November 2010 at 10:41 pm

    David,

    Your Bowdoin classmate Dave Larsson here. Read about this via Steve Randy Waldman a/k/a interfluidity on Twitter. Graphic, in every sense of the word.

    Cheers,
    Dave Larsson

    Reply
  10. Profidia says:
    17 February 2011 at 8:33 pm

    Assemblies of credible charts like this are invaluable with students. Most are more interested in ‘pictures’ than in numbers, so this is a big help getting the message across, thanks. You can bet I’ll put it to good use.

    Reply
  11. Magpie says:
    23 February 2011 at 7:48 pm

    Some more inequality charts you might find interesting:

    http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

    Reply
  12. “It’s the inequality, stupid” « occasional links & commentary says:
    24 February 2011 at 11:47 am

    […] Homeaboutcrisis representationsunequal representations […]

    Reply
  13. Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About… | oolaah says:
    11 October 2011 at 2:21 pm

    […] Image: David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  14. j.i.c.23 « ✌ says:
    12 October 2011 at 10:38 am

    […] Image: David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  15. What the Wall Street Protesters are All About, If You Have the Stomach For It | steve@bayintegratedmarketing says:
    12 October 2011 at 6:41 pm

    […] Image: David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  16. CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About… « Föhrenbergkreis Finanzwirtschaft says:
    15 October 2011 at 1:18 pm

    […] Image: David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  17. CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About… « Ye Olde Soapbox says:
    16 October 2011 at 1:59 pm

    […] Image: David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  18. Slinking Toward Retirement | CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About… | News, Travel, Opinion and Just Odd and Funny Things... says:
    16 October 2011 at 10:36 pm

    […] Image: David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  19. Occupy Tri-Cities » What is Occupy Wall Street? says:
    1 November 2011 at 5:34 pm

    […] Image: David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  20. DEAR AMERICA: You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS] – Business Insider « mawillits says:
    7 June 2012 at 1:10 am

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  21. sreaves32 says:
    7 June 2012 at 11:23 am

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  22. DEAR AMERICA: You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS] « NonviolentConflict says:
    7 June 2012 at 1:21 pm

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  23. AMERICANS SAW WEALTH PLUMMET 40 PERCENT FROM 2007 TO 2010, FEDERAL RESERVE SAYS « sreaves32 says:
    14 June 2012 at 10:29 am

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  24. MARC FABER: THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING; BRACE FOR “MASSIVE WEALTH DESTRUCTION”; MARKETS AT THE START OF A SIGNIFICANT DOWNTURN; 100% GUARANTEE OF A GLOBAL RECESSION « sreaves32 says:
    14 June 2012 at 10:32 am

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  25. MELTDOWN ON MAINSTREET: THE FALL OF THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS « sreaves32 says:
    14 June 2012 at 10:44 am

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  26. G says:
    23 June 2012 at 6:37 pm

    What appears to be missing is charts indicating income mobility. From 1996 -2005, less than half of those in the top 1% remained in the top 1%. In the same time period, roughly half of tax payers in the bottom income quintile raised to a higher income quintile. Median incomes of all taxpayers increased by 24 percent after adjusting for inflation. The real incomes of two-thirds of all taxpayers increased over this period. In addition, the median incomes of those initially in the lower income groups increased more than the median incomes of those initially in the higher income groups. These statistics were very comparable to a similar study covering 1986-1995. (source: United States Department of the Treasury Income Mobility Study)

    Reply
  27. David F. Ruccio says:
    24 June 2012 at 10:31 am

    And what’s missing from your account, G, are two things: First, income mobility in the United States is decreasing and is less than in many other advanced capitalist countries (witness the kerfuffle concerning the Great Gatsby curve). Second, if there is income mobility (within and/or between generations), it is still the case that it’s mobility between highly unequal income groups. In other words, the existence of mobility doesn’t eliminate the problem of inequality or of classes.

    Reply
    • Magpie says:
      25 June 2012 at 8:30 am

      Prof. Ruccio,

      There is also one issue with the Income Mobility Study. To be fair, I suppose this limitation is inevitable and inherent to data originating from tax returns: taxpayers tend to evade taxes by understating their incomes.

      This, for instance, is openly acknowledged by The World Top Incomes Database, that also works with taxation data (see here: http://g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/topincomes/#Introduction).

      (Incidentally, the Income Mobility Study does not warn against this, although they do mention that the 2005 figures are incomplete, in the Technical Appendix, starting in page 18).

      Further, not all taxpayers are equally capable (or indeed have the same incentive) to evade taxes. The World Top Incomes Database, for instance, warns that higher income earners have more incentives and means to provide underestimates of their incomes.

      All of this means that the inequality figures obtained should be considered as conservative estimates. Therefore, measures of mobility could overestimate actual mobility: the real upper cutoff point for one quintile, for example, could be considerably higher than the figure estimated from the tax returns.

      In other words: even if a taxpayer’s income increased in the measure estimated, the increase could be insufficient to take this taxpayer to the following quintile.

      Reply
  28. Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park and I | elcidharth says:
    10 April 2013 at 11:13 am

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  29. Dismayed says:
    27 September 2013 at 3:30 pm

    I’d love to see updated charts.

    Reply
  30. 21 Charts On US Inequality That Everyone Should See | Jo W. Weber says:
    12 November 2013 at 7:25 pm

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  31. Modi: Qui est Thomas Piketty? Je ne sais pas | So Sue me says:
    29 August 2014 at 8:05 pm

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply
  32. Chart of the day | occasional links & commentary says:
    7 January 2015 at 3:22 pm

    […] unequal representations […]

    Reply
  33. Crisis and inequality | occasional links & commentary says:
    8 February 2015 at 8:59 pm

    […] unequal representations […]

    Reply
  34. 23 Charts Of Rising Inequality That Will Make You Worried About The Future – in our service says:
    14 May 2015 at 7:36 pm

    […] David Ruccio […]

    Reply

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