Why America's Inequality Story Doesn't Add Up

[Kamaji]

Why America's Inequality Story Doesn't Add Up

Taxes, benefits, and household data make America look more unequal than it is.

Andrew Heaton | 1.2.2026

If you're like most Americans, you get the bulk of your cardio from marching in—or fleeing from—pitchfork-wielding mobs. These days, those mobs tend to be chasing oligarchs with their fancy castles and grave-robbing sidekicks. Inequality, we are told, is spiraling out of control.

But that's wrong. America doesn't actually have an inequality problem. We have a measurement problem.

Most of the infuriating headlines about inequality rely on data from the Census Bureau. And when the Census Bureau calculates inequality in the U.S., it leaves out two very important things: taxes and redistribution.

The Census Bureau looks at pre-tax income. If you earn $100,000 a year and pay $20,000 in taxes, the Census Bureau counts you as earning $100,000, not the $80,000 you actually take home.

That missing $20,000 doesn't vanish. The federal government redistributes it to the lowest quintile of Americans through food stamps, housing vouchers, Medicaid, child tax credits, Section 8 housing subsidies, and dozens of other programs. But almost none of that is factored into inequality statistics. There are over 100 federal programs that each redistribute over $100 million a year. Yet the Census Bureau counts only eight of them as "income."

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Source:  https://reason.com/2026/01/02/why-americas-inequality-story-doesnt-add-up/

[Bigun]

They "forgot" to mention the pockets of politicians and friends.

[Cyber Liberty]

At some point in time, the Census stopped being a disinterested observer that only calls strikes and balls?

[roamer_1]

Equal opportunity vs equal outcome.

One is almost perfectly demonstrated by this country, like no other.

The other is an impossible unicorn.

Like always, they'll distract you with the wrong measurement.
The real measurement... I, like many others have been down to nothing three times in my life. I mean, living in a tent 'nothing'. Like so many others, I pulled up my boot straps and built a new life from scratch. I kept 1-4 kids and a wife fed, and rebuilt from the ground up.

Each time, I got better at it. Each time was a new shot at the brass ring.
I never GOT the brass ring now, but I got to try.

The point being, it don't matter what your great granddaddy, granddaddy, or daddy went through. It don't matter what color they all were.

What matters is YOU. What YOU can do for yourself. I can promise you:

It will be damn hard, no matter who you are.
You may not win, no matter who you are.
Life may wreck you, just for shits and giggles. no matter who you are.
Often it won't be kind, and it won't be fair, no matter who you are.
But you have a proper shot at it, every_one.
You may not win. But you can play.

And if you work harder than you even knew you could, and everything goes according to Hoyle, you can jump up out of the lower class, and the sky is truly the limit.

There ain't another place on earth, in all of history. where you could do that like here and now. Not even close.