The
red line represents a graph of family income across the population.
The height of the curve at any point is the height of a stack of
$100 bills equalling that income.
If
we divided the income of the US into thirds, we find that
the top ten percent of the population gets a third, the
next thirty percent gets another third, and the bottom sixty
percent get the last third. If we divide the wealth of the
US into thirds, we find that the top one percent own a third,
the next nine percent own another third, and the bottom
ninety percent claim the rest. (Actually, these percentages,
true a decade ago, are now out of date. The top one percent
are now estimated to own between forty and fifty percent
of the nation's wealth, more than the combined wealth of
the bottom 95%.)