THE FEDERAL PAGE: The Rich Get Richer and... Income of Nation's Poor ...
For the last six years, the Reagan administration took pride in rising' incomes and falling unemployment after the deep recession of the early 1980s.</br></br>But at the same time, the ga[ between the richest and the pooresi was getting larger, and the fahiilie: at the bottom suffered an absolute decline in real purchasing power.</br></br>HereÛªs how the numbers behind this paradox shape up, as reported in a study by the House Ways and Means Committee. Average household income, ns measured in constant after-inflation dollars, rose from $27,568 in 1973 to $27,917 in 1979 and $29,487 in 1987ÛÓcomparable high-prosperity years in the business cycle. Unemployment dropped to 5.1 percent, the lowest figure since the early 1970s.</br></br>Adjusted for family size and economies of scale, the committee calculated that the average income of Americans rose by 17.2 percent from 1973 to 1987, .-is measured by after-inflation 1987 dollars.</br></br>But the calculations clearly show that for the one-fifth of households at the bottom of society, average cash income in constant after-inflation dollars dropped from $5,507 in 1973 to $5,107 in 1987ÛÓeven as the top fifth rose from $60,299 to $68,775.