The redistribution through interest visualised

Distribution of capital:

Group	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
in % per group	0	0	0	0.1	0.4	2	4.2	7.8	19.9	65.6
in k € / househ.

Distribution of household incomes:

group	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
in % per group	3	4.7	5.9	6.9	7.9	9.4	10.6	12.3	14.5	24.9
from interest*	0	0	0	0.1	0.5	2.3	4.8	8.9	22.7	90.4
other income
in k € / housh.	12	19	24	28	32	38	43	50	59	101

Distribution of the annual savings:

group	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
in % je group	0	0	0.7	2.5	5	8.2	10.7	12.5	22.1	38.3
in k € / househ.

Distribution of household expenses:

group	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
in % je group	3.3	5.2	6.5	7.4	8.2	9.5	10.6	12.3	13.6	23.3
in k € / househ.	12	19	23.7	26.9	29.8	34.4	38.3	44.5	49.3	84.2
interest burden included*	4.2	6.6	8.2	9.4	10.4	12	13.3	15.5	17.2	29.3

Redistribution through interest:

group	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
interest burden (k € / hh.)	4.2	6.6	8.2	9.4	10.4	12	13.3	15.5	17.2	29.3
interest (k € / hh.)	0	0	0	0.1	0.5	2.3	4.8	8.9	22.7	90.4
interest balance (k € / hh.)	-4.2	-6.6	-8.2	-9.3	-9.9	-9.7	-8.5	-6.6	5.5	61.1

Settings:

“ordinary” interest rate: % interest rate “rich”: %
Interest component: % determine automatically
show group sums: households per group (in mill.):

The ten household groups each consist of 3.8 million households and are arranged according to their capital. The total capital thus is 11389 billion €.

Sum over the balance row (should be close to 0): 3.6 - This much profit (if positive) ten average households (one from each group) make from the interest system (probably at the expense of corporations, the state, or foreign countries) - together 13.79 billion €.

All numbers used in the calculations can be modified through the input fields! The preset numbers are from Helmut Creutz’ article Wie groß ist die Umverteilung durch den Zins? (“How big is the redistribution caused by interest?”) in Fairconomy no 3/ 2010, and represent the situation in Germany. The general table layout is also derived from the tables in the article, but I used a different model for my graph, a simulation by business mathematician Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kremer.

The preset values for the capital distribution are similar to what the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (Federal Center for Political Education) published in 2009 (see graph on the right).

*Interest is calculated as capital times interest rate, the interest burden as expenses times interest component. The expenses are calculated as income minus savings.

The source codes of this page and the corresponding SVG graph can be accessed and reused.