Poor getting poorer?

A resounding NO.

Key excerpts:


After all, income inequality in America is increasing, right?

Wrong. According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study released this month, the bottom fifth of families with children, whose average income in 2005 was $16,800, enjoyed a larger percentage increase in income from 1991 to 2005 than all other groups except the top fifth.

Even more impressive, the CBO found that households in the bottom fifth increased their incomes so much because they worked longer and earned more money in 2005 than in 1991 -- not because they received higher welfare payments.

The bottom fifth increased its earnings by 80 percent, compared with around 50 percent for the highest-income group and around 20 percent for each of the other three groups.

This increase in earnings and total income by low-income families is the biggest success in American social policy of recent decades.


Truly a success story. Liberals will doubtless get the vapors and declare that the people in question are still living in abject poverty even with 80% increases in income. Failing that they'll cite this as Bill Clinton's Great Legacy. I don't care if they do the latter, but I do if they do the former. The definition of poverty is not a fungible one. Not determined by what someone believes middle class to be. There are real numbers and the author is citing them. Further, he's from Brookings which is hardly the Club For Growth.

Next time you hear the tired old trope that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, send them to the link above.

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