<p>Barrons, I can’t comment on an unidentified “chart” you saw, but the actual IRS data I linked to on the last page shows individual income at the 75th percentile - in 2005 that was about $60,000 - has been dead flat for twenty years when adjusted for inflation, fluctuating up and down in a narrow band, never more than 5% either way. Hard to see where 4% annual growth in wealth comes from that - was the chart you saw adjusted for inflation?</p>
<p>A median net worth for an entire family of $93,000 - including home equity, retirements savings, college savings, etc. – in a nation without national health care and the kind of social safety net which exist in most other industrialized nations – isn’t “pretty good.” That means that half the nation’s families are below that level. I know lots of people who have lost more than $93,000 in home equity (i.e. “net worth”) in the past year. It will be interesting to see what the Fed’s next household wealth survey - for 2004-2007 - shows.</p>