Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/372

 366 THE aCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

far as national prosperity goes, since it is the property of bnt 1 per cent, of the population I Four fifths of the people own but one tenth of the wealth !

The dotted line showing the average wealth per family is seen to be not the least indication of what families in general are worth, seeing that 70 per cent, of the families do not own even a fifth of the average family wealth. There is a big difference between the average family wealth and the predominating family wealth. The family midway be- tween the extremes is worth about $880 and this is perhaps as near as any one figure may come to expressing the family wealth that predomi- nates among such enormous variations. Would not the prosperity of the nation be far more truly reflected in this middle family wealth of $880, than in the average family wealth of $10,300? The one is the wealth of the average family and the other is the average wealth of families. The complete failure of the significance of the average is strikingly shown by the fact that the mean variation from the average is $15,500' — ^more than the average itself.

Turning now to examine the distribution of income, we find that it differs in a marked way from the distribution of property. Fig. 2, which is the diagram for income distribution, is constructed in pre- cisely the same way that the diagram for property was constructed — areas represent total incomes.

Had we not examined the property diagram first, we might have been impressed with the great inequality of the income distribution. Quite a portion of the area is lost to view in the extreme height of the narrow vertical point, for the group of incomes above $5,250 represent over 13 per cent, of the total income, and they are absorbed by less than 1 per cent, of the people. But as compared to the properly distribution, we see that the distribution of income among the masses is less nig- gardly. There is not the same great gap between the average income and the income of the middle man as in the case of property where the middle property was but 15 per cent, of the average. But the mean variation from the average is very high, being about 50 per cent, of the average. The average income is remarkably low, for in all incomes were leveled up, each family would receive but $1,480 ($300 per capita), which seems to be about what half of them are now actually getting, although some 40 per cent, are receiving less than half as much, while the remaining tenth might be accounted from middle class to exceed- ingly rich. The yearly income of our richest American citizen exceeds the life-time earnings of two thousand of our average American citizens. Mr. Bockefeller's income is about $100 a minute. His yearly income is roughly equivalent to the income of fifty average American citizens sustained through the entire Christian Era.

s Obtained by dividing the wealth represented by the total area between the eorve and the dotted line by the number of families.

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