Inequality on Steroids: The Distribution of Economic Growth in Australia

1950 to 1960 The first period begins in 1950—enough time to be clear of the distorting effects of the Second World War—and ends in 1960, on the eve of the Menzies’ Government credit squeeze that produced the 1961 recession.9 Over this period, the gains from economic growth were enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of the Australian people: 96 per cent of the per adult real economic growth went to. [...] This means that four per cent of the economic growth went to the top 10 per cent and the remaining 96 per cent of national income growth went to the bottom 90 per cent. [...] Inequality on Steroids: Distribution of economic growth in Australia 7 Proportion of total growth WID figures show that over the period 2009-19, the share of the top 10 per cent of income recipients increased from 31.2 to 32.6 per cent of national income, which had the effect of giving almost the whole of the 2009-19 expansion to the top 10 per cent. [...] In every country except China, where gains were split almost evenly between the top 10 per cent and bottom 90 per cent, the majority of the gains from growth went to the top 10 per cent, demonstrating how the income of the top 10 per cent has grown more quickly than that of the rest of the population. [...] By 2009-2019, the period between the end of the GFC and the beginning of the pandemic, the top tenth of income recipients have taken 93 per cent of the economic expansion, almost all of the increase in income per adult.