A Broader View of America's Wealth Inequality | The Business Desk with Paul Solman | PBS NewsHour

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In the fall of 2007, when the U.S. economy first seemed in peril, I began answering reader queries here on the Business Desk. I still do so, but this page has expanded to include posts from eminent economists, "far-flung correspondents," and a variety of voices that have intriguing and/or useful things to say about economics, broadly defined. Please feel encouraged to respond to any and all of them.

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A Broader View of America's Wealth Inequality

Editor's Note: Wednesday's story, featuring economist Robert Lerman's take on the distribution of wealth in the United States, has generated a flood of comments. Lerman has agreed to respond to many of the points made by our viewers - you can add your own in the comments below. Meanwhile, as promised, here is the more detailed breakdown of how he would slice the pie, factoring in Social Security and Medicare benefits, along with financial and housing assets.

As Lerman wrote in an email that prompted Wednesday night's story (which was itself a response to our original "pie chart" story):

Notwithstanding these points, the super-duper rich do have an unbelievable amount of money compared even to the well-off.

So here's a breakdown of wealth distribution based on financial and housing assets only, including a further dissection of the uppermost quintile:

inequality: financial and housing assets

And Bob Lerman's breakdown of wealth distribution, including Social Security and Medicare benefits along with financial and housing assets, again slicing down within the uppermost quintile:

inequality: social security, medicare, financial and housing assets