America Will Struggle After Coronavirus. These Charts Show Why.

Incomes have stagnated. But not for the rich.

One way to think about the rise in inequality is to imagine how different the economy would be if inequality hadn’t soared over the past 40 to 50 years. In that scenario, with the same G.D.P. that we have today but with 1980 levels of inequality, every American household in the bottom 90 percent of income would be earning about $12,000 more — not just this year, but permanently.

In effect, each household in this bottom 90 percent is sending a check for $12,000 to every household in the top 1 percent, year after year after year.

The stagnation of income for most Americans has caused a sharp decline in arguably the most salient definition of economic progress: Do you earn more than your parents did at the same age?

The answer was yes for 92 percent of Americans born in 1940. Even if they had to cope with unemployment, divorce, illness or another financial challenge, almost all grew up to out-earn their parents (controlling for inflation). Among Americans born in 1980, however, the share was only 50 percent. Living the American dream is now akin to a coin flip.

Another way to see how inequality has skyrocketed: The changing ratio between the pay of C.E.O.s and the pay of typical workers:

Over this same period, taxes on the wealthy have also fallen much more than for any other group.

Boomers are richer. The rest are poorer.

The trends on wealth are, if anything, starker.

In 2016 the median American household had a lower net worth — about 30 percent lower — than the median household in 2007. How could this be, given the bull market during much of that period? The answer is that most Americans own little or no stock. Their main asset is their home.

The affluent, of course, do tend to own stock, and the median net worth of the richest 10 percent of households rose 13 percent from 2007 to 2016 (the last year for which the Fed has released data).

The trends are similar over the long term.

Overall, the richest 0.1 percent of American households own 19.6 percent of the nation’s total wealth, up from 15.9 percent in 2005 and 7.4 percent in 1980. The richest 0.1 percent now have the same combined net worth as the bottom 85 percent.

The wealth trends have been especially hard on younger Americans. The median net worth of Americans under age 35 — who started off substantially poorer on average than older Americans — is 40 percent lower than the net worth of Americans under 35 was in 2004. The net worth of Americans over age 65, by contrast, has risen 9 percent over the same period. The Boomers, in short, are richer than their predecessors, and Millennials and Generation X are poorer than their predecessors.

Racial inequities have also widened. The median wealth of white households is now 10 times higher than the median wealth of black households. In 1992, the multiple was seven to one.

The richer live longer than the rest of us

The trends in health and life expectancy are also deeply worrisome.

Rich and poor Americans used to have fairly similar lifespans. Now, however, Americans in the bottom fourth of the income distribution die about 13 years younger on average than those in the top fourth.

No other rich country has suffered such slow growth in life expectancy. In 1980, Americans lived roughly as long as the British and French did. Not anymore:

One cause: The uniquely expensive and inefficient medical system in the United States. Treatments, procedures and drugs all cost more than in other countries. Those premiums lift the incomes of companies and people in the health care sector, but they come at the expense of other Americans.

Another reason for the widening gap is “deaths of despair” — from suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse. The rate of these deaths among American adults (ages 25 to 64) without a four-year college degree has nearly tripled since the early 1990s. More now die from these causes than from cancer.

For Americans with a college degree, the “deaths of despair” rate has risen only modestly over the same period — and is now less than one-fourth as high as it is for people without a degree.

Smoking rates have fallen much more for the affluent than the poor. Only 7 percent of adults with income above $100,000 smoke. About 14 percent of adults with income between $35,000 and $100,000 smoke, as do 21 percent with income below $35,000.

Daily life has also become significantly harder for Americans on the wrong side of the class divide. The chronic-pain gap has widened, with about 60 percent of adults without a college degree experiencing neck, back or joint pain.

And a larger share of Americans — especially men — are not working than in the past. Many of them aren’t looking for work, which means they aren’t counted as officially unemployed. The group includes former factory workers who have not been able to find decent-paying new jobs.

The decline of labor unions plays a role in many of these trends. Without collective bargaining, many workers struggle to receive wages that keep up with the growth of their company’s profits. Many also feel less connected to their company and to their colleagues than they once did.

Family life has diverged

A greater share of children in the United States live with only one parent — 23 percent — than in any other country.

The trend has been driven mostly by the rise of single-parent families among the middle class and poor.

About 77 percent of upper-income Americans between the ages of 25 and 55 are married. Only 29 percent of low-income Americans are.

Educational outcomes have diverged too

There has been a surge of college-going among children from all economic groups over the last few decades. But there has not been a surge in the share of lower- and middle-income students who graduate from college.

Many of those who fail to finish college end up with the miserable combination of student debt and no degree. The number of higher-income students who finish college, however, has risen sharply.

Research has consistently shown that the benefits of college — in terms of income, health and happiness — are large, but that those benefits accrue overwhelmingly to graduates rather than to people who merely earn some credits.

One reason for the growing inequality in college graduation has been sharp cuts in states’ spending on higher education. These cuts have left colleges with fewer resources and also led to big tuition increases, even after taking financial aid into account.

Given all of this, it makes sense that so many Americans have soured on their own country. For almost 20 years, through economic booms and busts and through presidencies of both parties, most Americans have said the country was headed in the wrong direction.

They’re right about that.