Income gap between rich and poor

==========

As the movie dialog states "show me the money."

The median American per capita income has been in decline for at least 30 years when adjusted for inflation, loss of benefits, and especially for taxes. For a while this could be offset by having additional adults in the family work, and/or working longer hours, but this reached its limit several years ago, and the only other legal recourse was to increase debt to maintain a material standard of living, which indeed grew exponentially. The traditional 3rd world "solutions" of petty crime, tax evasion, and an informal/underground economy are now booming. Scan

Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

Aack! That sounds like one of the stories my old power instructor would have told me, when I was 16 and asked him if he'd teach me to fly helicopters.

"Son," he said once. "The difference is that an airplane wants to fly. A helicopter wants to crash."

Happy Birthday with a wish for many more to come.

Wes

Not quite. I don't intend to get into it, but the comparative advantage model does indeed work, in a mixed relationship with absolute advantage. It's not permanent -- on any given product, it may be fleeting. But you'll find many examples of it, for example, in our industrial trade with China.

I don't think it applies to finance at all. I have to read Krugman on this point. He's probably the best expert on comparative advantage.

Yes on the first two. No on the third. Taxes on individuals in the US are currently at their lowest point in 54 years.

That looks like a lot of reading. Is any of it accurate?

Thanks, Wes. They just sort of run from one to the other these days. 'Ain't no stopping them.

I don't play the lottery; I studied math and can calculate the odds. I gamble by taking jobs at high-tech startups where I can affect the outcome by solving problems.

My father is a good example here. He was a poor Southern farm boy who went into the cotton mills when the farm failed. While there he took classes and advanced from retying broken threads to cost accounting. Knowing all the production details he was good at it, worked his way up to management partly thanks to Air Corps OCS and eventually was invited to be the first CFO of a newly formed NH department. Unfortunately that meant we had to leave the wonderful 1830 brick house we had restored.

He was 'lucky' enough to discover the advantage of buying and renovating old houses into apartments in his (our) spare time, and taught himself, and me, carpentry, wiring and plumbing well enough to pass inspections.

jsw

I don't play the lottery; I studied math and can calculate the odds. I gamble by taking jobs at high-tech startups where I can affect the outcome by solving problems.

My father is a good example here. He was a poor Southern farm boy who went into the cotton mills when the farm failed. While there he took classes and advanced from retying broken threads to cost accounting. Knowing all the production details he was good at it, worked his way up to management partly thanks to Air Corps OCS and eventually was invited to be the first CFO of a newly formed NH department. Unfortunately that meant we had to leave the wonderful 1830 brick house we had restored.

He was 'lucky' enough to discover the advantage of buying and renovating old houses into apartments in his (our) spare time, and taught himself, and me, carpentry, wiring and plumbing well enough to pass inspections.

jsw

=====================================

We've had this conversation here before and the thing that's clear is that people who argue the issue are thinking about different anecdotes. What Iggy says, IMO, is correct: some people have strings of bad luck, like my old high school buddy who had about five employers go bankrupt. It so disrupted his career that it took him a decade or more to get back where he should have been. And I have many other examples.

But that doesn't disparage the value of hard work and determination. They'll compensate for a lot of "bad luck." The fact is, though, that there are much larger elements of luck in most people's lives than we recognize. They can make the difference between rich and poor, healthy and sick, happy and sad.

======== Why does "Tax Day" keep moving later in the year if the fraction of income is going down? This *MAY* be true for Federal taxes, but when state and local income, sales and real estate taxes are included the total tax take [from normal people in the normal tax brackets] just keeps going up. There is also the question of governmental "fees" rather than taxes. However you slice it, it is more money taken by the government from the citizens.

Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

I don't disagree, after the war my father almost became a Louisiana shrimp boat and oil rig outfitter.

The problem here is twisting the meaning of "lucky" to imply successful people don't really deserve their money as much as some envious politician does.

jsw

It doesn't. The trendline is moving earlier:

Fees are chickenfeed. Total taxes are part of "Tax Freedom Day."

It isn't just startups, Ed. I saw a story about a college kid diagnosed with a disease that was expensive to treat. IIRC, he was a grad student and pretty exceptional. In the end, he dropped out of school and went to work for one of the midwest's big sporting goods or hardware chains at a pretty modest wage as a full time employee in order to have coverage that would pay for his treatment.

He's still got his student loans and will probably get work suitable to his education and training but he's otherwise dead in the water. That sort of thing seems a terrible waste to me.

It is, any way you look at it. As health care reform develops and unfolds, it should put an end to that waste, and to the burden faced by many US employers involved in international trade. Many countries completely unload that burden from employers -- although it does show up in taxes of various types. But the direct addition to manufacturing costs from health care insurance is much less among several of our important trading partners.

Is it that you can't read or that you can't comprehend? I'll use smaller word for you next time. Dumbass!

Unions would rather shut down plants than show any weakness. Unions sure are champions of the working class, aren't they?

Look at Carrol's drivel, he thinks min. wage is $15.00/hr. What a stupid libtard! But, I'm being redundant. How does he still have internet access? I thought he was banned from the library. He lost all his money to a get-rich-quick scam and now is most likely on the dole. Another libtard cheese-checker! No wonder he has his tongue up Obammy's ass, he's counting on more free money. I haven't plonked him as of yet, I like to bitch-slap him every once in a while but his crap is getting old and repetitive, time for the looney bin for him. Why can't these douchebaggers get a job and actually contribute to society? Oh that's right, they lack marketable skills

I'm just kind of curious here.

Why do you call people names like that?

Do you think this is decent behavior?

And Id still like to have my Milwaukee 9" grinder back that he has.

Gunner

"First Law of Leftist Debate The more you present a leftist with factual evidence that is counter to his preconceived world view and the more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot, homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to the subject." Grey Ghost

Perhaps not..but he has had dealings with the man.

Like I have.

Gunner

"First Law of Leftist Debate The more you present a leftist with factual evidence that is counter to his preconceived world view and the more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot, homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to the subject." Grey Ghost

I always respond in kind, whatever the tone.

Hmmmm.