(H/T – Dad29)
Buried in an early-August Reuters story on the preliminary 2009 Statistics of Income tables produced by the Internal Revenue Service is this little “gem”:
The number of Americans reporting incomes of $10 million or more also plunged even more than the steep drop in income for the population as a whole.
Just 8,274 taxpayers reported income of $10 million or more in 2009, down 55 percent from 18,394 in 2007. Compared with 2007, total real income of these top earners in 2009 fell 58.6 percent to $240.1 billion, but average income slipped just 8.1 percent to $29 million.
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2009 statistics. It’s a one off following the financial crisis. Bet you $100 that these numbers rebound heavily from 2009 in 2010 and again in 2011 and continue along their recent trend (which was parabolic until the financal crisis).
Fact is, income growth among this decile has exploded in the last 30 years and left growth in every other income level in the dust. 2009 was an exception to a long term trend.
Bottom line: The favorable tax and regulatory laws that ultra rich people have paid other ultra rich people to create remain intact.