According to a 5.3.12 article by Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute, the actual corporate-elite-vs.-working-schlub pay ratio in the US is 231 to 1, and not 475 to 1 as the below graph (which has been circulating for roughly a year now) alleges. So wealth distribution is actually a lot fairer and more equitable in this country than previously believed…hah!

What is the average low-information voter’s response to this data? Is it “Jesus, this country has gone all to hell…we ought to vote on behalf of our own economic interests and get rid of all corporate-fellating Congresspersons and try to make things a little fairer”? No — the typical low-information voter’s response is, “Jeez, I wish I could be one of those guys making all that big dough. Well, maybe if I vote for Romney my chances will improve.”

“From 1978-2011, CEO compensation grew more than 725 percent, substantially more than the stock market and remarkably more than the annual compensation of a typical private-sector worker, which grew a meager 5.7 percent,” Mishel reports.

A year ago Politifact‘s Truth-o-meter reported that the above graph was “done as a class project by three students — Adam Choate, Dana Rowzee and Jerrod Tinsley — in a graduate class back in 2005.” The 475 to 1 ratio is unsubstantiated, in short, but the 231 to 1 ratio is apparently reliable.