Very rich getting richer, much, much faster-leaving the rest behind

The New York Times' David Cay Johnston reported yesterday that income inequality continued to soar to heights not seen since the days of the robber barons, noting that:

"... the total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans...."

Johnston also wrote:

The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher.

The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003.

The report is the latest to document the growing concentration of income at the top...."