it's a pyramid scheme

Average wealth in America has increased over the past 50 years, but it has not grown equally for all groups.
Between 1963 and 2013:

• families near the bottom of the wealth distribution (those at the 10th percentile) went from having no wealth on average to being about $2,000 in debt,
• those in the middle roughly doubled their wealth—mostly between 1963 and 1983,
• families near the top (at the 90th percentile) saw their wealth quadruple,
• and the wealth of those at the 99th percentile—in other words, those wealthier than 99 percent of all families—grew sixfold.

Sources: Health and Retirement Study 1992-2012 matched to Summary Earnings Records 1951–2007. Calculations provided by Melissa Favreault, Urban Institute.

Notes: 2013 dollars. These people are age 61 in 2004–2012.

Why is the racial wealth gap so big? People with lower earnings may have a harder time saving. The typical white person earns $2 million over a lifetime, while the typical African American earns $1.5 million and the typical Hispanic person earns $1 million. These disparities partly reflect historical racial disadvantages that continue to affect later generations.