949『自然と人間の歴史・世界篇』アメリカにおける富の偏在(2019～2020)
まずは、アメリカにおける富の偏在、所得や財産の保有に大いなる差があることは、様々な研究や調査などがあり、その中から最近のものを幾つか紹介しよう。
フランスのガブリエル・ズックマンとトマ・ピケティとの合同での研究結果としての「WORLD INEQUALITY REPORT 2018」には、世界を見渡すと、こんな話であるという。
「How has inequality evolved in recent decades among global citizens? We provide the first estimates of how the growth in global income since 1980 has been distributed across the totality of the world population.
The global top 1% earners has captured twice as much of that growth as the 50% poorest individuals. The bottom 50% has nevertheless enjoyed important growth rates.
The global middle class (which contains all of the poorest 90% income groups in the EU and the United States) has been squeezed.」(WORLD INEQUALITY REPORT 2018)
それでは、アメリカではどうなっているかというと、こちらは「差別もここまで来れば」の典型ともなっている。
「Income inequality in the United States is among the highest of all rich countries. The share of national income earned by the top 1% of adults in 2014 (20.2%) is much larger than the share earned by the bottom 50% of the adult population (12.5%).
Average pre-tax real national income per adult has increased 60% since 1980, but it has stagnated for the bottom 50% at around $16 500. While post-tax cash incomes of the bottom 50% have also stagnated, a large part of the modest post-tax income growth of this group has been eaten up by increased health spending.」(同)
見られとおり、総じて、アメリカの納税者のトップ1%の所得が国民所得に占める割合は、1980年に11%だった、それが今では20%を超えているという。
そればかりではなく、下層半分のアメリカ人の所得が国民所得に占める割合は、1980年は20%だったが、今では12%に減少しているという。
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二つ目に、「the balance」の論説サイトに、興味深い話が載っている、その結論部分のみを、「さわり」の部分を紹介しよう。
「In 2019, the top 20% of the population earned 51.9% of all U.S. income.Their average household income was $254,449. The richest of the rich, the top 5%, earned 23% of all income. Their average household income was $451,122.
The bottom 20% only earned 3.1% of the nation’s income. The lower earner's average household income was $15,286.
Most low-wage workers receive no health insurance, sick days, or pension plans from their employers. They can't get ill and have no hope of retiring. That creates health care inequality, which increases the cost of medical care for everyone. Also, people who can't afford preventive care will wind up in the hospital emergency room.
In 2014, 15.4% of uninsured patients who visited the ER said they went because they had no other place to go.
They use the emergency room as their primary care physician.」(同社のサイトから、「Income Inequality in America」を選択し、その一部を引用)
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三番目に紹介するのは、セントルイス連邦準備制度理事会の調査報告であり、この種の研究ではかねてから定評があるところだ。まずは、人種による違いから。
「The wealth gap between Black and white families remains large, despite Black families’ real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) wealth gains in dollar terms.
In 2019, the typical non-Hispanic Black family had about $23,000 of wealth. That’s up 32%, from $17,000 of wealth in 2016 (using unrounded numbers). By “typical,” we mean a family at the middle or median. (The median is a useful approximation of the typical family’s experience because it’s not as likely to be affected as the average by the inclusion of data on extremely high- or low-wealth-holding families.)
That’s also 12 cents per dollar of the typical non-Hispanic white family, which had about $184,000 of wealth in 2019. Non-Hispanic white family wealth was up 4%, from $177,000 in 2016.」(「Has Wealth Inequality in America Changed over Time? Here Are Key Statistics」Wednesday, December 2, 2020)
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次には、富の分布について、どうなっているのだろうか。
「In 2016, total U.S. household wealth amounted to $92.4 trillion in 2019-adjusted dollars. The 2016 population was about 126 million families. To be in the top 10% of the wealth distribution in 2016, a family needed at least $1.26 million.
In 2019, total wealth had grown to $96.1 trillion. The 2019 population was approximately 129 million families.
To be in the top 10%, a family needed $1.22 million or more (slightly less than in 2016). Together, these roughly 12.9 million wealthy families owned 76% of total household wealth in 2019.
To be in the middle 40%, a family needed at least $122,000 in wealth. Together, these approximately 51.5 million families owned 22% of U.S. wealth in 2019.
To be in the bottom 50% meant a family had less than $122,000 in wealth. That represented about 64.3 million—or half of—families in 2019, owning just 1% of the nation’s wealth. Further, of this group, some 13.4 million families (about 1 in 10) had negative net worth—they didn’t even have a slice of the pie.」(同)
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