What is the Net Worth of the Bottom 50% ?

The President’s remarks at the recent State of the Union aroused my curiosity:

Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by 47 percent — three times faster than the increase for the top 1 percent.

Questions:

This prompted the following questions:

  1. So, what is the average net worth of the bottom 50% of Americans?
  2. How has the average net worth of the bottom 50% changed over time, adjusted for inflation, starting around 1970?
  3. For extra bonus points, can you compare that to data on the top 1%?

Follow-up:

This sounds like it would make a good story for  The Indicator from Planet Money.

37 quotes that defined American politics in 2019

Here’s the story of the year in politics, in quotes.

1. “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”

— President Trump to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a later-released rough transcript of their July 25 phone call. Trump followed it up by asking Zelensky to investigate the Bidens and a conspiracy theory Trump harbored about Ukraine and 2016 election interference. (Trump would also later suggest that China investigate Hunter Biden.)

2. “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

–William B. Taylor Jr., the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, in a Sept. 9 text message to Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. The text, which was released in early October, was the first concrete proof that officials believed there to be a potentially corrupt quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine.

3. “I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.”

–Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in an October White House news briefing, briefly confirming there was a quid pro quo with Ukraine involving military aid in exchange for Ukraine launching Trump’s preferred investigations. Mulvaney later recanted his admission.

4. “The DNC server and that conspiracy theory has got to go. If he continues to focus on that white whale, it’s going to bring him down.”

–Former White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert in September on Trump’s theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, might have interfered in the 2016 election. Trump has since been impeached over the push for the probes.