- Sep 6, 2000
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Since Obama has been so keen on discussing income inequality lately, figured this was a good time to have a reality check. Of course, Obama has already been called out by numerous and sundry sources lately, but I figured it might be worthwhile to look at the numbers from official government sources.
As you can see from Table A-2 (starting on page 38 of the document linked above), the rate at which income inequality has increased under the last 2 Democratic Presidents (Clinton and Obama to date) is ten times the rate of the last 2 Republican Presidents (the two Bushes) as shown by the increase of GINI coefficients during their terms of +0.21 vs. +0.02. If you compare instead the last 3 Presidents of each party by adding in Reagan and Carter to the mix, the rates are identical (+0.22). So when you hear a Democrat speaking about how rising income inequality is a bad thing™, you can start asking perceptive questions. Like why the rate has gone up increasinly under each recent new Democratic President while it's gone down increasingly under each recent new Republican President.
For your convenience I have cut-n-pasted the relevant numbers below and totalled each set. For simplicity sake, I used the following assumptions:
(a) Each President's term is considered to begin in the year he was inaugurated and end in the year when his replacement was elected (e.g. Bush II would be shown as 2001-2008)
(b) Obama's end value is shown as most recently available figure (2011)
(c) Nixon/Ford are considered a single Presidency.
President name / Gini index of income inequality for first and final year of admin / Difference
Obama (2009-present): 0.468 / 0.477 / +0.09
G.W. Bush (2001-2008): 0.466 / 0.466 / unchanged
Clinton (1993-2000): 0.454 / 0.462 / +0.12
G.H.W. Bush (1989-1992): 0.431 / 0.433 / +0.02
Reagan (1981-1988): 0.406 / 0.426 / +0.20
Carter (1977-1980): 0.402 / 0.403 / +0.01
Nixon/Ford (1969-1976): 0.391 / 0.398 / +0.07
As you can see from Table A-2 (starting on page 38 of the document linked above), the rate at which income inequality has increased under the last 2 Democratic Presidents (Clinton and Obama to date) is ten times the rate of the last 2 Republican Presidents (the two Bushes) as shown by the increase of GINI coefficients during their terms of +0.21 vs. +0.02. If you compare instead the last 3 Presidents of each party by adding in Reagan and Carter to the mix, the rates are identical (+0.22). So when you hear a Democrat speaking about how rising income inequality is a bad thing™, you can start asking perceptive questions. Like why the rate has gone up increasinly under each recent new Democratic President while it's gone down increasingly under each recent new Republican President.
For your convenience I have cut-n-pasted the relevant numbers below and totalled each set. For simplicity sake, I used the following assumptions:
(a) Each President's term is considered to begin in the year he was inaugurated and end in the year when his replacement was elected (e.g. Bush II would be shown as 2001-2008)
(b) Obama's end value is shown as most recently available figure (2011)
(c) Nixon/Ford are considered a single Presidency.
President name / Gini index of income inequality for first and final year of admin / Difference
Obama (2009-present): 0.468 / 0.477 / +0.09
G.W. Bush (2001-2008): 0.466 / 0.466 / unchanged
Clinton (1993-2000): 0.454 / 0.462 / +0.12
G.H.W. Bush (1989-1992): 0.431 / 0.433 / +0.02
Reagan (1981-1988): 0.406 / 0.426 / +0.20
Carter (1977-1980): 0.402 / 0.403 / +0.01
Nixon/Ford (1969-1976): 0.391 / 0.398 / +0.07