Unequal Financial Gains:
See below the income by quantile from 1968 to 2023. Note that the data was obtained from the US Census and was adjusted to 2023 dollars using the C-CPI-U (2000-2023) and R-CPI-U-RS (pre-2000). You can find more information at R-CPI-U-RS Homepage : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
See that the 95th percentile income, as of 2023 has increased 121.98% since 1968, while the 40th percentile income has increased the least, by 41.88%. Basically, this is saying that each of the quantiles, taking inflation into account, have made gains, but most of the gains have been apportioned to the 95th percentile. You will see another project that I will do where I will analyze the C-CPI-U weights. Also, I will be looking at housing, automobiles, college loans and health care as a percentage of unadjusted salary to see if things look so rosy for the bottom quartile. I question whether the bottom quartiles are really better off.
Find more info on the above data at “The Changing Shape of the Nation’s Income Distribution: 1947-1998,” Current Population Reports, Series P60-204. Information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions is available at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/techdocs/cpsmar24.pdf