http://en.wikipedia....dices_over_time
US income Gini indices over time
Gini indices for the United States at various times, according to the US Census Bureau:[13][14][15]
1929: 45.0 (estimated)
1947: 37.6 (estimated)
1967: 39.7 (first year reported)
1968: 38.6 (lowest index reported)
1970: 39.4
1980: 40.3
1990: 42.8
2000: 46.2
2005: 46.9
2006: 47.0 (highest index reported)
2007: 46.3
2008: 46.69
2009: 46.8
The Gini index was 0.469 in 2010.
.....The nation's official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 ─ the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ─ the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published......
Poverty
The poverty rate in 2010 was the highest since 1993 but was 7.3 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points.....
http://www.nytimes.c....4.6900205.html
The strains of Danish commitment
Dec 27th 2007, 18:46 by Free Exchange | Washington, DC
HOW do you keep 'em down on the egalitarian welfare state after they've seen low taxes? Well, according to this New York Times piece on the flight of talent from Denmark, increasingly you don't.
The Confederation of Danish Industries estimated in August that the Danish labor force had shrunk by about 19,000 people through the end of 2005, because Danes and others had moved elsewhere. Other studies suggest that about 1,000 people leave the country each year, a figure that masks an outflow of qualified Danes and an inflow of less skilled foreign workers who help, at least partially, to offset the losses.
The problem, employers and economists believe, has a lot to do with the 63 percent marginal tax rate paid by top earners in Denmark — a level that hits anyone making more than 360,000 Danish kroner, or about $70,000. That same tax rate underpins such effective income redistribution that Denmark is the most nearly equal society in the world, in that wealth is more evenly spread than anywhere else.
Denmark is such an interesting case because it so closely resembles the kind of society I think the political philosopher John Rawls had in mind in his magnum opus, "A Theory of Justice": economically dynamic egalitarianism. But Mr Rawls ruled out emigration, as a simplifying stipulation. The Times article does an excellent job of showing how supra-national mobility rights in a not-so-simple world limit the feasibility of egalitarian welfare states that rely on punishingly high tax rates.
Mr Rawls argued that a just society must be "well-ordered". And a well-ordered society must be stable, meaning that its members must willingly comply with its terms. When the "strains of commitment" of a social system are too great, we should expect non-compliance and a not-so-well-ordered system. Rawls' pragmatic argument against utilitarianism was precisely that it requires too much of us, overstrains our ability to prioritise the welfare of others over that of our families and ourselves. But Rawls' own version of egalitarian liberalism may ultimately fall to the same objection.
The latter third of "A Theory of Justice" is supposed to show how a society implementing Mr Rawls' system of "justice as fairness" can generate allegiance from its citizens and thereby pass the stability test. In a nutshell, citizens will learn to see that such a system is just, which will inspire their native sense of moral rectitude, causing them to voluntarily adhere to its rules, even when it requires some sacrifice of them......
https://www.cia.gov/...ields/2172.html
Field Listing - Distribution of family income - Gini index
............. Gini
Denmark .........23.2 (2002) 24.8 (2011 est.)
Norway ...... 25.8 (2000) 25 (2008)
Sweden ...... 25 (2000) 23 (2005)
France ....... 26.7 (2002) 32.7 (2008)
Finland ...... 26.9 (2000) 26.8 (2008)
Czech Republic . 27.3 (2003) 31 (2009)
Germany ...... 28.3 (2000) 27 (2006)
Netherlands .... 30.9 (2005) 30.9 (2007)
Austria ........ 31 (2002) 26 (2007)
European Union .31.6 (2003 est.) 30.4 (2010 est.)
Canada ...... 32.6 (2000) 32.1 (2005)
Belgium .......33 (2000) 28 (2005)
Switzerland .....33.7 (2000) 33.7 (2008)
Ireland ...... 34.3 (2000) 33.9 (2010)
Spain ...... 34.7 (2000) 32 (2005)
Australia ......35.2 (1994) 30.5 (2006)
Korea, South ....35.8 (2000) 31 (2010)
United Kingdom ..36 (1999) 34 (2005)
Italy ...... 36 (2000) 32 (2006)
New Zealand .....36.2 (1997)
Japan ...... 38.1 (2002) 37.6 (2008)
Israel ...... 38.6 (2005) 39.2 (2008)
Ecuador 42 note: data are for urban households (2003) 47.3 (June 2011)
Burundi ........ 42.4 (1998)
Iran ........ 43 (1998) 44.5 (2006)
Uganda ........ 43 (1999) 44.3 (2009)
Nicaragua ...... 43.1 (2001) 40.5 (2010)
Turkey ........ 43.6 (2003) 40.2 (2010)
Nigeria ........ 43.7 (2003)
Kenya ......... 44.5 (1997) 42.5 (2008 est.)
Philippines .....44.5 (2003) 45.8 (2006)
Cameroon ........44.6 (2001) 44.6 (2001)
Uruguay ........ 44.6 (2000) 45.3 (2010)
Cote d'Ivoire ...44.6 (2002) 41.5 (2008)
United States ...45 (2004) 45 (2007)
Jamaica ........ 45.5 (2004)
Rwanda ........ 46.8 (2000)
Malaysia ........46.1 (2002) 46.2 (2009)
Mexico ........ 46.1 (2004) 51.7 (2008)
China ........ 46.9 (2004) 48 (2009)
Nepal .......... 47.2 (2004) 47.2 (2008)
Mozambique ......47.3 (2002) 45.6 (2008)
Madagascar ......47.5 (2001)
Venezuela .......49.1 (1998) 39 (2011)
Argentina .......48.3 (June 2006) 45.8 (2009)
Costa Rica.......49.8 (2003) 50.3 (2009)
Sri Lanka .......50 (FY03/04) 49 (2009)
Niger ...........50.5 (1995) 34 (2007)
Papua New Guinea 50.9 (1996)
Thailand ........51.1 (2002) 53.6 (2009)
Dominican Republic 51.6 (2004) 48.4 (2007)
Peru ............52 (2003) 46 (2010)
Zambia ........ 52.6 (1998) 50.8 (2004)
Hong Kong........52.3 (2001) 53.3 (2007)
El Salvador......52.4 (2002) 46.9 (2007)
Honduras ........53.8 (2003) 57.7 (2007)
Colombia ....... 53.8 (2005) 56 (2010)
Chile .......... 54.9 (2003) 52.1 (2009)
Panama ........ 56.1 (2003) 51.9 (2010 est.)
Brazil ......... 56.7 (2005) 51.9 (2012)
Zimbabwe ........56.8 (2003) 50.1 (2006)
Paraguay ........58.4 (2003) 53.2 (2009)
South Africa ....59.3 (1995) 65 (2005)
Guatemala 59.9 (2005) 55.1 (2007)
Bolivia ........ 60.1 (2002) 58.2 (2009)
Central African Republic 61.3 (1993)
Sierra Leone ....62.9 (1989)
Botswana........ 63 (1993) 63 (1993)
Lesotho 63.2 (1995)
Namibia .........70.7 (2003)