Re: how to compare living standards


"tonyp" <tonyp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A5GdnTR-eNOx8_jZRVn-uw@xxxxxxxxxx

"Jim Blair" <jeb@xxxxxxxx> wrote (If income changed randomly)

The Hubbard study would show very high income mobility.
For a large population, each number in the grid would be 20% ...


Well, we would have to combine the first 2 columns of the table you linked
to. Then we would have a 5x5 matrix. And it would show 86% in the upper
left corner.

Hi,

Yes. The first 2 columns consitiute one quintile.

....According to Hubbard, 86% of all the people in the top
quintile in 1979 were still in the top quintile in 1988. That's not
"mobility" -- that's glaciation, at least at the top.

Once most people achieve a high income, they tend to retain it. Think that
should be unusual? It seems expected to me.

And once you are IN the top quintile you can't move up, as there is no
higher quintile to move into. My guess is that most who leave the top
quintile do so by dying. And those who died between 1979 and 1988 are
excluded from the study.

So yes, if you are in the top income quintile and are still alive a decade
later, you probably have about an 86% chance of remaining in the top
quintile. Think that is BAD?

Then there's the very, very top. If we break out the top 0.1% (1 person
in
1000) or the top 0.01% (1 person in 10,000) would we notice that "income
mobility" drops to nearly _zero_ for those whose rake in 100 or 1000 times
the median income? I don't know.

Neither do I. That was not included in the reported results.

I do know that those people deserve tax cuts and their kids deserve
tax-free
inheritances because, poor souls, they are such a small, put-upon
minority.

-- TP

Back to that "death tax" again? Our local paper (the Wisconsin State
Journal) had a "debate" on the estate tax last week and yesterday letters in
response.

Critics of the tax mostly complained that it was a tax on money already
taxed. The same could be said of sales or gas tax.

Supporters claimed that it was "fair" because it collectes huge amounts from
those milti-billionaires and repealing it would greatly increase the US
national debt.
One even quoted the very high percent that would be collected from a billion
dollar estate. (of course assuming someone with a billion dollars never
heard of estate planning ;-)

Only one letter pointed out the lawyers and law firms that benefit from the
tax and that the really rich seldom pay it.



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jim blair (jeblair@xxxxxxxx) Madison Wisconsin USA.
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