Three aspects of this finding should be stressed. First, the data are
for income before direct taxes and exclude contributions by government (e.g., relief and free assistance). It is fair to argue that both the
proportion and progressive of direct taxes and the proportion of total
income of individuals accounted for by government assistance to the
less privileged economic groups have grown during recent decades. This
is certainly true of the United States and the United Kingdom, but in
the case of Germany is subject to further examination. It follows that
the distribution of income after direct taxes and including free contributions by government would show an even greater narrowing of in-
equality in developed countries with size distributions of pretax, ex-
government-benefits income similar to those for the United States and
the United Kingdom.