$79 Trillion Worth of Income Inequality

Optimist Economy

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.


Follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy.


Follow us on TikTok at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy.


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

More description

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.


Follow us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy.


Follow us on TikTok at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy.


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

2026-01-27 49 min Transcript
Listen elsewhere

Available Results

Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Transcript

Open the Transcript tab to load the transcript.

Chapters

No chapters available.