Question

When considering the distribution of wealth in the United States, which statement is most accurate?

1) Wealth is pretty equally distributed across all of American society.
2) There are roughly twice as many people living in poverty as there are wealthy people.
3) There are thousands of people who would be considered billionaires.
4) We have a tiny poverty rate of only about 5 percent, and hundreds of thousands of rich citizens.

Answer 1

The distribution of wealth in the United States is highly unequal, with the top one percent holding one-third of all wealth while the bottom 50 percent holds only 2 percent. There are not thousands of billionaires, and the poverty rate is higher than 5 percent. Wealth distribution is measured using tools like quintile measurements and Lorenz curves.

Step-by-step explanation:

When considering the distribution of wealth in the United States, the most accurate statement is that a small portion of the population holds a significant proportion of the nation's wealth. The wealthiest one percent hold approximately one-third of our nation's wealth, while the bottom 50 percent of Americans possess only 2 percent. Furthermore, the disparities are even more pronounced on a global scale, where significant inequality exists between nations.

The wealth distribution in the United States is more unequal than the income distribution. This is in part because income disparities can accumulate over time into greater wealth disparities. Also, although there are indeed many wealthy individuals, the number of billionaires is in the hundreds rather than thousands, and the poverty rate is significantly higher than 5 percent.

The measurement of wealth inequality includes tools such as quintile measurements and Lorenz curves, as reported every three years by the Survey of Consumer Finance from the Federal Reserve Bank.