Watch an economist use Legos to explain how taxes affect U.S. income distribution

The U.S. tax code shrinks the income gap a bit, but not much

(Image credit: Brookings Institution)

last updated 14 April 2015

Wednesday is Tax Day in America, and if you're wondering how much the government is collecting from your economic peers and those in higher and lower income brackets, the Brookings Institution has you covered. In the video below, David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, uses Legos to quantify how much each quintile of taxpayers earns, how much they send to Uncle Sam, and how much they have left over.

America's progressive tax system shrinks the gap between the wealthy and the poor "some," Wessel says, "but even after taxes, the distribution of income in the United States remains substantially unequal." Whether or not you think it fair that the IRS takes 70 Legos from people in the richest 1 percent of the population but only one thin brick from the bottom 20 percent, this is a pretty helpful way to visualize a fairly dry data set with important policy implications. Watch below. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.