Superrich's share of after-tax income stopped rising in early '90's, data show
WASHINGTON -- The share of after-tax income going to the superrich -- a percentage that soared in the go-go 1980s -- stopped rising in the recession of the early 1990s, new data fron the Congressional Budget Office show.</br></br>The data indicate that the top 1% of Americans, who in 1996 will reap an average of $438,000 in after-tax income, saw their slice of U.S. income stay at about 12% from 1989 to 1992, the latest year for which such data are available. Before that, their share had skyrocketed to 12.4% in 1989 from 7.3% in 1977, the first year the CBO began collecting the data.</br></br>The CBO results, analyzed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an independent liberal think tank, appeared to contradict some politicians and analysts who have said the rich are gaining at the expense of the poor.</br></br>Will this alter long-held views? Not likely. For one thing, the superrich stagnation occurred during a recession that hit the wealthy as well as the poor.</br></br>Moreover, more-recent data suggest that the rich's share of income is rising again. Data released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that the top 5% wealthiest Americans saw their share of aggregate income shoot up from 1992 to 1994, after it slipped a bit during the recession. Census data aren't as complete as CBO data, in part because they don't measure the top 1% of Americans. But the census data are more up-to-date.