Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
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Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#2This type of statistics is useless, it does not include army of unemployed people.
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#3This type of statistics is useless, it does not include army of unemployed people.
That statistic is compiled by the census bureau, and last I checked, unemployed people are part of the census and likely part of the statistic, especially since it can indicate when one person has all the income.
What I find odd is the article mentions 0.0 as the 'one person has all the income', where the wikipedia article on the Gini coefficient says 'A Gini coefficient of one (or 100%) expresses maximal inequality among values (for example where only one person has all the income).'
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#4This type of statistics is useless, it does not include army of unemployed people.
Fine, I'll bite.
How do you figure "it does not include army of unemployed people"? Census data should reflect members of the population regardless of employment status.
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#5I have yet to see a solid discussion of wealth inequality that removes the outliers. Given that 85 people have half the worlds wealth, it would appear to me that a study which looks at the numbers without those people would be more interesting in helping us understand how our systems and markets are moving wealth for 99.999% of us.
Even still, the goal should not be balanced wealth but continual upward mobility for all people - or more aptly distance from poverty. There will always be rich and poor but the standard of living and equity of opportunity for the poor is what we should focus on. It is more important that a poor kid have good education, healthcare and living standards than it is to rebuke the rich guy for having a yacht. It seems we are in this stage where we recognize something isn't right but we are immaturely blaming the rich guy and saying he should give his money to the poor kid rather than finding real solutions to the plight of the poor kid.
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#6Are welfare payments included in income of an individual or not?
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#7[edit: the author has since corrected the Gini definition in the article]
I've never encountered the Gini coefficient before, but reading up on it on Wikipedia, the author appears to have the measure flat backward.
"A score of "0" on the Gini coefficient represents complete equality, i.e., every person has the same income. A score of 1 would represent complete inequality, i.e., where one person has all the income and others have none."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Gini_coe...
Also see the chart here, with the US rising toward inequality ever since the 60's. Again, the caption says "where 0 is perfect equality, and 100 is perfect inequality." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient#Gini_coefficie...
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#8This type of statistics is useless, it does not include army of unemployed people.
That statistic is compiled by the census bureau, and last I checked, unemployed people are part of the census and likely part of the statistic, especially since it can indicate when one person has all the income. What I find odd is the article mentions 0.0 as the 'one person has all the income', where the wikipedia article on the Gini coefficient says 'A Gini coefficient of one (or 100%) expresses maximal inequality…
It does appear that he got that backwards.
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#9I have yet to see a solid discussion of wealth inequality that removes the outliers. Given that 85 people have half the worlds wealth, it would appear to me that a study which looks at the numbers without those people would be more interesting in helping us understand how our systems and markets are moving wealth for 99.999% of us. Even still, the goal should not be balanced wealth but continual upward mobility for a…
Why would you remove the outliers? There is information in the sample distribution, and if you are removing everything outside 3sigma (or even 6sigma) you are squashing the data.
A high level of wealth comes with disproportionate political power. One shouldn't disregard this aspect and confine the discussion to most people having a fairly comfortable life.
Re: Have US Income and Wealth Inequality Actually Increased?
#10I have yet to see a solid discussion of wealth inequality that removes the outliers. Given that 85 people have half the worlds wealth, it would appear to me that a study which looks at the numbers without those people would be more interesting in helping us understand how our systems and markets are moving wealth for 99.999% of us. Even still, the goal should not be balanced wealth but continual upward mobility for a…
The problem is that poverty is continually redefined as standard of living and opportunities increase.
Poverty used to be living in a shanty town during the dust bowl where you could possibly die of dehydration any day. Poverty now is living in a house where you only get basic cable and don't have the money to buy a nice steak dinner.