Note to Media: Income Inequality Isn't the Same as Wealth Inequality

For quite a while now, there has been a media focus (ironic considering the TV reporters and anchors are mostly 1 percenters) on an allegedly growing gap between the wealthiest Americans and those of more modest means. Unfortunately, this is only a partial picture since income is much more predicated on stock market growth and not related to many other facets of the economy.

Writing at the American Enterprise Institute, blogger James Pethokoukis highlights a very interesting report about tax laws and income distribution which shows that when looked at the broader context, it is incorrect to suppose that U.S. tax policy has somehow created a vast disparity of wealth in this country. Two charts from his post are worth reposting here at NB:

Wealth and income are not the same thing. Wealth is the true measure of how "well off" someone is. As the chart above and the one below demonstrate, there hasn't really been that much change at all in the wealth of the allegedly nefarious "1 percent."

There's much more at the post including a discussion on tax policy where Pethokoukis dispels some myths on lower- and middle-class tax rates. Highly worth reading.