Alongside rising top incomes, the level of living of America's poorest has fallen

a column by Martin Ravallion, Dean Jolliffe and Juan Margitic for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

When the poorest gain, the lower bound, or ‘floor’, of the distribution of living standards rises.

Using microdata spanning the last 30 years, this column argues that the floor in the US has been sinking, alongside rising top incomes. The floor would have fallen further without public spending on food stamps, which helped protect the poorest in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Continue reading

I very much doubt that the situation in the UK is much different. I follow Child Poverty Action Group and Christians Against Poverty and the picture presented is not a pretty one.

---