Are Democracy and economic equality fundamentally incompatible?

[freedquaker]

 

Data	Total gain	Percent gain	2003	2000	1997	1994	1991	1988	1985	1982	1979	1976	1973	1970	1967
20th percentile	$3,982	28.40%	$17,984	$19,142	$17,601	$16,484	$16,580	$17,006	$16,306	$15,548	$16,457	$15,615	$15,844	$15,126	$14,002
Median (50th)	$9,980	29.90%	$43,318	$44,853	$42,294	$39,613	$39,679	$40,678	$38,510	$36,811	$38,649	$36,155	$37,700	$35,832	$33,338
80th percentile	$31,602	57.20%	$86,867	$87,341	$81,719	$77,154	$74,759	$75,593	$71,433	$66,920	$68,318	$63,247	$64,500	$60,148	$55,265
95th percentile	$65,442	73.80%	$154,120	$155,121	$144,636	$134,835	$126,969	$127,958	$119,459	$111,516	$111,445	$100,839	$102,243	$95,090	$88,678

Here, take a quick look at the increasing income inequality in US. The Median Income (Adjusted for Inflation) increase only 30% between 1967 and 2003 (in 36 years, less than 1% a year). It actually stagnated after 1997. The poorest 20% saw an increase of around 28% in 36 years, while their income has also practically stagnated since 1997. 

The Rich, on the other hand, saw large increase in their incomes. 80th percentile increased by 57% while 95th percentile increased by 74%. So the rich go richer for sure. What's ironic is that most of the so called economic growth directly came from the increase of the income of the Rich, especially the top 5%.

 

All this trend does not exist in social democracies in Europe.