The Congressional Budget Office released a study this week that
highlights increased inequality. Between 1979 and 2008, after-
tax income of the top 1% almost tripled, while after-tax income
of other groups increased by much less. The graph shows clearly
that, the lower your income, the less of a share you got in the
increased prosperity of the last three decades. There was some
growth of income among all quintiles during the last three
decades, but the growth of income decreases steadily as you move
to the lower quintiles. The graph below, which traces the share
of the upper 1% historically, shows us one important reason for
increased inequality. During the post-war years and through the
1970s, the share of the top 1% was lower than it is today and
decreased steadily. Prosperity was widely shared, with moderate-
income groups showing even more gains than the highest income
groups. Then, in the 1980s, there was a drastic reduction of the
top income tax rate under the Reagan administration, from a top
marginal r