Should-Read: Austin Clemens: No one measure of inequality tells the whole story–income, wealth, and consumption should be considered together: "The Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, releases the results of its annual Consumer Expenditure Survey, or CEX, today... http://equitablegrowth.org/equitablog/value-added/no-one-measure-of-inequality-tells-the-whole-story-income-wealth-and-consumption-should-be-considered-together/
...Income inequality... consumption inequality and wealth inequality.... “We eat bread, not paychecks.” Unfortunately, consumption inequality has generally been the most difficult to measure due to the difficulty of collecting good data.... One of the most frequently cited and well-vetted studies suggests that consumption inequality is increasing at the same rate as income inequality. Recently published work, however, finds that Americans’ shopping habits may be reducing the accuracy of the survey for measuring inequality and suggests that accounting for this shows that consumption inequality has remained flat.... We should also consider that if income inequality is increasing while consumption inequality is not, that extra income has to go somewhere...
