This study is misleading, because it uses 'household' wealth, instead of individual wealth, and may be incorrectly interpreted as showing a decline in the middle class, when it is really showing the results of changes in family structure over the past 50 years. This graph shows how this choice affects the results: <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g3WZGpDibPM/Up3ZAPRtScI/AAAAAAAAJqE/5hWGdOBol_E/s1600/a-gini-ratio-us-households-families-individuals-1947-2012.png" rel="nofollow">http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g3WZGpDibPM/Up3ZAPRtScI/AAAAAAAAJq...</a><p>The following blog-posts go in to more detail:<p><a href="http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-major-trends-in-us-income.html#.U6n7UfldUpV" rel="nofollow">http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-major-t...</a><p><a href="http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-widows-peak.html#.U6n7UvldUpV" rel="nofollow">http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-widows-...</a><p><a href="http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-men-who-werent-there.html#.U6n7U_ldUpV" rel="nofollow">http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-men-who...</a>
Long story short:<p>The wealth of non rich Americans is almost entirely contained in their highly leveraged houses. If housing prices collapse, their wealth collapses.<p>In 2008, housing prices collapsed.
Project it back a few years, and I'd bet we're poorer on average as a country than we were when I was born. Man, 43% decline for the median? Ouch.<p>I also like that the mean wealth in America is 6x the median wealth.<p>Actually, I find the numbers for the 75th+ percentiles a bit surprising, as my mental model had them with significant uptick after about 2011 or so. Kind of a wealth transfer from the lower percentiles. Whereas, this research seems to show that while erosions were smaller for the top (due to their non-real estate growth), no demographic they researched showed overall wealth <i>growth</i> from 2007 on. At best, they've gotten back to zero slope.
I didn't read anything about how the increasing numbers of older Americans who are not working might have a significant bearing on the matter.<p>edit: What I'm saying is, America has a baby-boomer generation that is retiring in droves, more power to them but don't do a study at a major university sounding alarm bells unless an important factor like a massively retiring baby boomer generation is considered.
Here's a problem I have with the definition of "wealth".<p>My wife in I, who recently finished professional schools, earn (combined) in the top 5%. But because of our student debt, when I do a "wealth" calculator, I'm apparently literally at the bottom of the wealth chart - 0%. Leads me to question:<p>1. Is College attendance increasing, or decreasing over time?<p>2. Is price of College attendance increasing, or decreasing over time?<p>I suspect both increasing. Would that explain some (or most, or all?) of this phenomenon? Average or lower income individuals will mostly go from positive to negative to put themselves through school, while rich or upper class will not. Would be interested how much of the phenomena that would explain.
The wikipedia article on Income inequality in the United States is surprisingly detailed and I highly recommend it if you have any interest on wealth. It's such a polarized topic that the comments almost immediately turn into inaccurate or out of context talking points.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United...</a>
The average American is not wealthy. The median net worth is $45K [1], which is below Japan, Canada, Australia and much of Western Europe.<p>[1] <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/middle-class-wealth/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/middle-class-we...</a>