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Income inequality in the United States has increased significantly since the 1970s after several decades of stability, meaning the share of the nation's income received by higher income households has increased. This trend is evident with income measured both before taxes (market income) as well as after taxes and transfer payments. Income inequality has fluctuated considerably since measurements began around 1915, moving in an arc between peaks in the 1920s and 2000s, with a 30-year period of relatively lower inequality between 1950–1980.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Congressional Budget Office, US Government )〕〔 Measured for all households, U.S. income inequality is comparable to other developed countries before taxes and transfers, but is among the highest after taxes and transfers, meaning the U.S. shifts relatively less income from higher income households to lower income households. Measured for working-age households, market income inequality is comparatively high (rather than moderate) and the level of redistribution is moderate (not low). These comparisons indicate Americans shift from reliance on market income to reliance on income transfers later in life and less than households in other developed countries do.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Luxembourg Income Study Center )〕 The U.S. ranks around the 30th percentile in income inequality globally, meaning 70% of countries have a more equal income distribution.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The World Factbook )〕 U.S. federal tax and transfer policies are progressive and therefore reduce income inequality measured after taxes and transfers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Congressional Budget Office, US Government )〕 Tax and transfer policies together reduced income inequality slightly more in 2011 than in 1979.〔 While there is strong evidence that it has increased since the 1970s, there is active debate in the United States regarding the appropriate measurement, causes, effects and solutions to income inequality.〔 The two major political parties have different approaches to the issue, with Democrats historically emphasizing that economic growth should result in shared prosperity (i.e., a pro-labor argument advocating income redistribution), while Republicans tend to downplay the validity of or ability to positively influence the issue (i.e., a pro-capital argument against redistribution).〔 ==Overview== U.S. income inequality has grown significantly since the early 1970s,〔(【引用サイトリンク】format=PDF )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Burtless, G. (January 11, 200). Has U.S. Income Inequality Really Increased?. ''The Brookings Institution''. )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Shaprio, E. (October 17, 2005). New IRS Data Show Income Inequality Is Again of The Rise. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities )〕 after several decades of stability,〔Piketty, Thomas (2014). ''Capital in the Twenty-First Century.'' Belknap Press. ISBN 067443000X ''"The Explosion of US Inequality after 1980"'': pp. 294–96.〕 and has been the subject of study of many scholars and institutions. The U.S. consistently exhibits higher rates of income inequality than most developed nations due to the nation's enhanced support of free market capitalism and less progressive spending on social services.〔Weeks, J. (2007). (Inequality Trends in Some Developed OECD countries ). In J. K. S. & J. Baudot (Ed.), ''Flat World, Big Gaps'' (159–174). New York: ZED Books (published in association with the United Nations).〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Compare your country )〕〔("Can Domestic Policy Affect Income Distribution?" ) by Timothy Noah, ''The New Republic'' (March 13, 2012) * "Among the industrial democracies where income inequality is increasing, it's much worse in the United States than it is almost anywhere else. Among 34 nations recently surveyed by the OECD, the United States got beat only by Turkey, Mexico, and Chile. That's as measured by the Gini coefficient, and including taxes and government transfer payments." Note: inequality is higher in less economically developed countries such as Turkey, Mexico, Chile, which are also members of the OECD〕〔Maxwell Strachan (May 1, 2014). (The U.S. Is Even More Unequal Than You Realized ). ''The Huffington Post.'' Retrieved May 1, 2014.〕〔Richard Wolff (October 26, 2011). (How the 1% got richer, while the 99% got poorer ). ''The Guardian.'' Retrieved October 6, 2014〕 The top 1% of income earners received approximately 20% of the pre-tax income in 2013,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Emmanuel Saez )〕 versus approximately 10% from 1950 to 1980.〔("More Bad News For The Middle Class," ) by Timothy Noah, ''The New Republic'' (September 12, 2012)〕 The top 1% is not homogeneous, with the very top income households pulling away from others in the top 1%. For example, the top 0.1% of households received approximately 10% of the pre-tax income in 2013, versus approximately 3-4% between 1951-1981.〔〔(Emanuel Saez-Income and Wealth Inequality: Evidence and Policy Implications-October 2014 )〕 Most of the growth in income inequality has been between the middle class and top earners, with the disparity widening the further one goes up in the income distribution.〔("The United States of Inequality Entry 8: The Stinking Rich and the Great Divergence," ) by Timothy Noah, ''Slate.com'' (September 14, 2010)〕 According to IRS data, adjusted gross income (AGI) of $388,900 was required to be in the top 1% in 2011. To put this change into perspective, if the US had the same income distribution it had in 1979, each family in the bottom 80% of the income distribution would have $11,000 more per year in income on average, or $916 per month.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=It can be morning again for the world's middle class )〕 Half of the U.S. population lives in poverty or is low-income, according to U.S. Census data. The trend of rising income inequality is also apparent after taxes and transfers. A 2011 study by the CBO〔(Congressional Budget Office: Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 ). October 2011.〕 found that the top earning 1 percent of households increased their income by about 275% after federal taxes and income transfers over a period between 1979 and 2007, compared to a gain of just under 40% for the 60 percent in the middle of America's income distribution.〔 U.S. federal tax and transfer policies are progressive and therefore substantially reduce income inequality measured after taxes and transfers. They became moderately less progressive between 1979 and 2007〔 but slightly more progressive measured between 1979 and 2011. Income transfers had a greater impact on reducing inequality than taxes from 1979 to 2011.〔 Americans are not generally aware of the extent of inequality or recent trends.〔Stiglitz, J.E. (June 14, 2012) ("We've been brainwashed" ) ''Salon''〕 There is a direct relationship between actual income inequality and the public's views about the need to address the issue in most developed countries, but not in the U.S., where income inequality is worse but the concern is lower.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The U.S.'s high income gap is met with relatively low public concern )〕 The U.S. was ranked the 6th worst among 173 countries (4th percentile) on income equality measured by the Gini index.〔(Credit Suisse Research Institute Global Wealth Databook 2013 )〕 There is significant and ongoing debate as to the causes, economic effects, and solutions regarding income inequality. While before-tax income inequality is subject to market factors (e.g., globalization, trade policy, labor policy, and international competition), after-tax income inequality can be directly affected by tax and transfer policy. U.S. income inequality is comparable to other developed nations before taxes and transfers, but is among the worst after taxes and transfers.〔〔 Income inequality may contribute to slower economic growth, reduced income mobility, higher levels of household debt, and greater risk of financial crises and deflation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Monetary policy and long-term trends )〕〔(NYT-Joseph Stiglitz-Inequality is holding back the recovery-January 2013 )〕 Labor (workers) and capital (owners) have always battled over the share of the economic pie each obtains. The influence of the labor movement has waned in the U.S. since the 1960s along with union participation and more pro-capital laws.〔 The share of total worker compensation has declined from 58% of national income (GDP) in 1970 to nearly 53% in 2013, contributing to income inequality.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=FRED Graph )〕 This has led to concerns that the economy has shifted too far in favor of capital, via a form of corporatism, corpocracy or neoliberalism.〔( Capitalism vs Corporatism - Edmund Phelps ) ''Columbia University.'' January 11, 2010.〕〔( Corporatism, Not Capitalism Is To Blame For Inequality - Edmund Phelps ) ''Financial Times.'' July 24, 2014.〕〔Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy (2004). ''(Capital Resurgent: Roots of the Neoliberal Revolution ).'' Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674011589 * "The advent of economic neoliberalism in the 1980s triggered a shift in the world economy. In the three decades following World War II, now considered a golden age of capitalism, economic growth was high and income inequality decreasing. But in the mid-1970s this social compact was broken as the world economy entered the stagflation crisis, following a decline in the profitability of capital. This crisis opened a new phase of stagnating growth and wages, and unemployment. Interest rates as well as dividend flows rose, and income inequality widened."〕〔Stephen Haymes, Maria Vidal de Haymes and Reuben Miller (eds), ''(The Routledge Handbook of Poverty in the United States ),'' (London: Routledge, 2015), ISBN 0415673445, (p. 7 ).〕〔David M Kotz, ''(The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism ),'' (Harvard University Press, 2015), ISBN 0674725654. (p. 43 )〕 Although some have spoken out in favor of moderate inequality as a form of incentive,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? )〕〔Jonathan Hopkin, Victor Lapuente and Lovisa Moller (January 25, 2014). (Lower levels of inequality are linked with greater innovation in economies ). ''London School of Economics.'' Retrieved July 17, 2014.〕 others have warned against the current high levels of inequality, including Yale Nobel prize for economics winner Robert J. Shiller, (who called rising economic inequality "the most important problem that we are facing now today"),〔John Christoffersen (October 15, 2013).(Robert Shiller: Income Inequality Is 'Most Important Problem' ). ''The Huffington Post.'' Retrieved October 16, 2013.〕 former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan, ("This is not the type of thing which a democratic society – a capitalist democratic society – can really accept without addressing"),〔("White House: Here's Why You Have To Care About Inequality," ) by Timothy Noah, ''The New Republic'' (January 13, 2012)〕 and President Barack Obama (who referred to the widening income gap as the "defining challenge of our time").〔(Obama says income inequality is defining challenge for U.S. ) ''PBS NewsHour.'' December 4, 2013. Retrieved December 26, 2013).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Income inequality in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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