Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog. This graph tracks the share
of income going to the top 1% in seven countries. It’s from a
paper by two Swedish economists, Jesper Roine and Daniel
Waldenström (pdf).”’ The trend was towards greater equality up
to 1980 — the share of the 1% was shrinking. Since then, the 1%
have increased their share of the income pie in all seven
countries. But the graph seems to show important differences,
especially in recent decades. Here is a cropped version of the
graph showing the 1980-2004 years. I have added straight lines
connecting those two points for Sweden and for the U.S. Both
changes are increases, but are they the same or are they
different? The answer is crucial. The U.S. and Sweden have
different economic policies. If the changes are no different
between countries, then inequality is just one of those
inevitable things that’s happening no matter what governments
do. But if the growth of inequality in the US is much greater
than in Sweden, maybe government policy can in fa