GALLERY
The Income Pyramid
Rich and poor in America drawn four ways — fifths, the Pew middle, wealth against income, the poverty line — and a calculator that shows the class is in the ruler.
ON THE FLOOR
Charles Horton Cooley
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“You learned who you are by watching what other people reflected back at you. The mirror, it turns out, was people all along.”
ON THE FLOOR
Edward Soja
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“Space is not the stage the story happens on - it is one of the actors. Ask WHERE, and half the mystery answers itself.”
ON THE FLOOR
George Herbert Mead
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“The self is a conversation: the I speaking, the Me listening with everyone else's ears. You rehearse society every time you think.”
The Pyramid That Is Not a Pyramid
U.S. households by income bracket, 2023: the widest bands are in the middle and the top bracket - $200,000 and over - has no ceiling. Thirteen percent of households live in a bar that runs from $200k to $200 million.
Five Equal Groups, Five Unequal Shares
Households cut into five equal groups by income; the share of all income each group receives. The top fifth holds about 52%, the bottom fifth about 3%. The dotted line is what equal would look like.
Income Is Unequal; Wealth Is Far More So
Two rulers side by side: the share of this year's income and the share of everything owned, for the bottom half, the next 40%, the next 9% and the top 1%. Wealth is the steeper spike by far.
Who Is Middle Class?
A definition, then fifty years of it: Pew calls a household middle income if it earns two-thirds to twice the national median, adjusted for household size. By that rule the middle was 61% of adults in 1971 and about 51% now; the leavers went both ways, more up than down.
From the gallery's own wall — "The Pyramid That Is Not a Pyramid".
🎧 A moment to consider
What will you carry out of this room?