Where do you and your family fit? Average income increases 1975-1995:

Richest 5% up 54.1 %

Top 20 % up 35.4 %

Second 20% up 13%

Middle 20 % up 6.7%

Fourth 20% up 4.4%

Bottom 20 % up 1.5%

Although everyone gained the top 5% did 24 times better. The bottom didn't even do better than inflation so they actually lost. From the Second 20% to the Bottom, 4/5 of U. S. households dropped from 57% of the wealth to 51.3%. The median wage for men dropped from $24,007.00 to $22,562.00 per year.

In 1970 a new house cost twice a young couple's annual income, by 1994 it was 4 times.

Mary Leonard of the Boston Globe reports: "The average wealth of the richest 1%of Americans increased from $10 million to more than $14 million from 1989 to today. But wealth a the low end is actually shrinking, as the use of credit cards, debit cards and home equity loans pushes many middle class fami;liesm who are disproportionately minorities, further into debt, out of the home-buying market and even into bankruptcy." (filing have reached a fifth straight record in the first quarter of 1997 up 26% above the year earlier quarter to 335,073 according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

source: Andrew Hacker Money: Who Has How Much and Why.

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