Two Graphs Tell a Lot About the Conservative Revolution in America

These two graphs are from a review in the current edition of The Economist of Anthony Atkinson's new book, Inequality: What Can Be Done? .

The top graph shows that the top one percent of Americans get something like 17 or 18 percent of all the income in the country. Of course, the one percent control a greater portion of the wealth.

The second graph is the real reason I wanted to create this post. In the United States the top tax rate has almost been cut in half in the past 45 years, more than in any of the other developed nations shown. In the same period the share of income appropriated by the top one percent has increased by more than nine percent of the total. The very rich have used their wealth to achieve the political power to increase their wealth still more! The rest, not so much!