In 2016, U.S. companies' pursuit of bigger profits through higher prices transferred three percentage points of national income from the pockets of low-income and middle-class families to the wealthy, according to new research on market concentration and inequality.
The study, forthcoming in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, examines how growing corporate power, particularly in industries dominated by shrinking numbers of huge companies, effectively “transfer[s] resources from low-income families to high-income families.”
In the latter part of the 20th century, the share of U.S. households owning some form of stock rose dramatically, from 32 percent in 1989 to 52 percent in 2001. That shift was driven largely by a decline in defined-benefit pension plans and the rise of the 401(k) retirement account. As a result, the traditional line between shareholders and consumers has become blurrier than ever. That’s led a number of economists to declare that what’s good for shareholders is also, by definition, good for the middle class.
[For more on this story by Christopher Ingraham, go to https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.9c00ff8a77f2]
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