# IS Wall Street the main cause of U.S. income/wealth inequality?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-wall-street-the-main-cause-of-u-s-income-wealth-inequality/745926>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 12, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-wall-street-the-main-cause-of-u-s-income-wealth-inequality/745926 "2016-02-12T13:45:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 102

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**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-wall-street-the-main-cause-of-u-s-income-wealth-inequality/745926/102 "2016-02-16T22:10:17Z")

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> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> Since one of the supposed solutions to wealth inequality is government transfers, you need to include them when looking at the statistics. So add in the EITC, food stamps, tax changes to the middle class, and other programs.

CBO ([PDF](https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/112th-congress-2011-2012/reports/10-25-HouseholdIncome_0.pdf)) already added most of it up:

Real median after-tax household income increased by 35% 1979-2007.

That conclusion should be immediately obvious to anyone who steps back and spends five minutes scrutinizing the claim that the middle class has stagnated.

The report does also show the rich getting richer. Everyone is getting richer, even the bottom quintile. But it’s faster for the rich. And that brings us back to the OP: IS Wall Street the main cause?

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