Our own optimist economist Kathryn Anne Edwards worked on a research project several years ago to measure income inequality. Its massive headline number has taken on a life of its own in columns, talking points, memes. We explain how Kathryn and co-author Carter Price managed to answer this question: What would have happened to Americans’ incomes if they’d grown at the same rate as the U.S. economy overall? Spoiler alert: 90% of us would be a lot better off.

Read the working paper Kathryn co-wrote in 2020: Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018 and Carter Price’s update going through 2023.

Watch video clips from this episode at the Optimist Economy YouTube channel⁠⁠.

Read some stuff on our Substack.

Consume leisure in an O.E. hat or shirt: https://merch.ambientinks.com/collections/optimisteconomy

Support us and our tireless editors and producers by donating at https://optimisteconomy.com

Send your economic questions or executive orders to optimist.economy@gmail.com

$79 Trillion Worth of Income Inequality

Optimist Economy

Pareto principle and its relevance

The AI-powered Podcast Player