Tuesday, July 14, 2015

On the Five Quintiles of Wealth and Income

What the left has to understand here is that to a large extent these are the same people at different stages of life; the fact that the lowest incomes/net-worths tend to be amongst families in their 20s whereas the highest tend to be amongst families in their 40s, 50s (relative to income), and 60s (relative to net worth). And the reason that the gap is widening is because the reward for success has gotten bigger over time (which isn't necessarily an awful thing, I would submit).............................................................................................P.S. And, no, I'm not saying here that every family progresses over time. Treasury Department data shows that approximately four out of every ten families who start in the bottom quintile will still be there a decade later. But I would argue that a large chunk of these people are either retired (i.e., people who went from 65 to 75 during those ten years), on disability (and whose transfer checks don't show up in the calculations), by-products of generational welfare/"the system" (which, yes, I understand ISN'T the prototype), or absolute fucking screw ups (and you know who you are) and NOT the victims of some corporate conspiracy....All of which is good news, correct?

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