RCSSCI 220 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Gini Coefficient, Consumer Debt, Stock Market
Document Summary
The distribution of wealth in the united states at the 21st century - wolff. Economic fluctuations were great between the 1990"s and 2007. Lots of gains in the 2000 were the result of increases in the housing market. Household wealth inequality shot up during the 1980"s but remained stagnant until 2007. Massive increase in debt (especially in the middle class) made them vulnerable to collapse. Wealth provides security that income may not. Mean wealth grew 2x as fast as median wealth from 1983-2007 - indicates growing inequality. Gini coefficient didn"t change much between 1989 and 2007. The top percentiles of the economy did not have significantly more wealth in. Debt as a proportion of growth assets was 15% in 2007. Pension accounts saw solid growth which offset less viable liquid assets. The top 1% are overwhelming putting their money in investments, and have relatively low debt (debt to net worth of only 3%)
