Income distribution in the US is not equal with the highest 20% of the US population earning 47.6 % of the total US income and the bottom 20% earning just 3.6% of total US income. This would seem to be very unfair except there is considerable mobility both up and down the income scale. Typically the young start out in the lower levels of income and then move up the scale reaching their peak earning years between 45 and 60. Past age 60, as people begin to retire, they move back down the income scale into lower levels of income.
(A) Why is income in the US so unevenly distributed?
(B) What factors affect income mobility?
(C) If poverty is growing why isn’t there almost universal support for income redistribution?