Re: how to compare living standards


"Ron Peterson" <ron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1148516328.499400.197990@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jim Blair wrote:
"Ron Peterson" <ron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote (on income mobility studies)

Perhaps it would make more sense to look at the rank of individuals
for
a given birth year.

It would be instructive to see data on the incomes of a group of
individuals
of the same age, collected at several times (say every 5 years or every
decade).

I guess that's sort of the function of class reunions.

Hi,

But a class reunion is much less representative than an age cohort, and so
would show less spread in mobility.
It is restricted to those who completed some gven level of education (high
school or college or whatever) and if your high school was anything like
mine, it was all kids from the same section of the same mid-west city: a
middle class district in Kansas City Missouri. Even the 1954 graduation
class of other high schools in KC would have been much different. Lincoln
was all black, South West was mostly rich kids, and Central was a
lower-middle working class district.

...Family reunions
give a little bit of that but the age groups are diverse.

But the point of your comment was to compare people of the same age. Which
I supposed was to "correct" for the increase in wealth or income that is
expected to come with age and experience.


I had a class reunion last year but really couldn't find out too much
on how well the others did. One classmate did well wiithout a higher
education by moving down south and becoming a manager of factory
similar to the one that his parents had (he was trained in the business
while in high school). Another married a doctor a few years older than
her and managed their 720 garden apartments mainly in Southern
California.

Marriage is one way to improve your standard of living. Pretty girls
probably do better that way than homely ones.

...Another worked as a State Patrol officer retiring before
the drug dealers/users got too plentiful. A surprisingly small number
have died.

My guess is that this would show a lot of Income Mobility with an almost
complete turnover during the first several decades.

I'm not sure what would be worth measuring. People have different goals
and abilities.

Of course they do, but the extent of income mobility was the topic

A friend of mine has two children and his family income has been larger
than mine, but my family has been able to save and invest $300,000 more
because we don't have any children.

Because those who dropped out of school and went to work at an early age
would have the highest incomes at age 16, while those who stayed in high
school would be earning much less. Those who finished high school would
then get higher paying jobs and soon pass the drop outs (say by age 25),
but
those who went on to graduate or medical or law school would be in the
bottom income quintile. But a decade or two later they would move from
the
bottom to the top, with the HS drop outs falling from top to bottom by
around age 35-40.

The only problem is that a child from a well-to-do family is more
likely to get a college education and when that child goes to work, the
child will earn considerably more than a person who worked his way
through school.

??? Any evidence to support that? My guess would be the reverse.

From my experience teaching at Milton and Edgewood colleges was that it was
the kids from poor families who worked and/or were on scholarship that took
their classes more seriously than the kids from rich families who were often
there more to please their parents.

Do you agree?

I think that individuals can be upwardly mobile if they desire to be in
the context of their luck and abilities. But that's because others
value other things more like having children, expensive cars, etc.

Many people (including me) choose jobs that provide satisfaction rather than
income, and that does reduce our "income mobility".


Why is it important that people be upwardly mobile? The selfish gene
doesn't win if a person has no children.

--
Ron


Not if your siblings and close blood relatives do well. It is your genes
that "count', not YOU ;-)



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jim blair (jeblair@xxxxxxxx) Madison Wisconsin USA.
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