This article by Michael Fletcher explains that "[w]ealth inequality widened dramatically during the first two years of the
economic recovery, as the upper 7 percent of American households saw
their average net worth increase 28 percent, while the wealth of the
other 93 percent declined."
That finding bears repeating. In its first two years, the "economy recovery" from the depression that began in 2008 saw the wealth of more than 9 in 10 American households drop. That is, generally, the "recovery" was not a recovery at all for most Americans, but often a worsening of their economic circumstances, a continuing economic depression.
This data discussed in Fletcher's article come from a Pew Research Center report. Below is an additional excerpt from Fletcher's article and two charts from the Pew report.
The uneven recovery has only accelerated a decades-long trend of growing
wealth inequality in the country, despite rising popular and political
awareness of the dynamic. From 2009 to 2011, the average net worth of the nation’s 8 million
most-affluent households jumped from an estimated $2.7 million to
$3.2 million, Pew said. For the 111 million households that form the
bottom 93 percent, average net worth fell 4 percent, from $140,000 to an
estimated $134,000, the report said.
