WSJ lies with statistics to make the rich look poor

[Newsjock]

Source: Mother Jones

Jon Chait takes a closer look at a Wall Street Journal chart intended to suggest that the middle class has all the money:

... Democrats have been arguing that their tax increases should solely affect income over $250,000 a year. The Journal makes that pot of income appear small by divvying it up into seven different lines. See, the $100,000-$200,000 line is tall, and all the other lines to the right of it are short. That tall line must be where the money is!

As a public service, I've redrawn the chart for the Journal. On the left is the original. On the right is the chart that shows the actual amount of money earned by the tiny handful of people making over $200,000. It's a lot.



Read more: http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/05/fun-charts-making-rich-look-poor

[dkf]

1. Do most people file as singles?

You would think the WSJ would be more precise as they must have access to better numbers.

[Hannah Bell]

2. those 7 bars on the right = about 2% of the population. lol.

[bjobotts]

3. Cheap trick.Divided up all those making more than $250 by separating them into millions columns

[pa28]

4. Great catch by Jon Chait.

The original article is hilarious and gives the WSJ a well deserved skewering.

[Ramulux]

5. Wow thats some serious propaganda

You rarely see rags like the WSJ being so obvious in how they present their misinformation. That is a great catch by this guy and I would be curious to see what the WSJ's excuse for doing this would be.

[SkyDaddy7]

6. I think the WSJ will do what all of Murdoch's Propaganda...

Media Companies do as we get closer to the election...IMHO.