CDR: While we're talking about income mobility... (was Re: ip: NCPA Policy Digest 11-2-00)
R. A. Hettinga
rah at shipwright.com
Fri Nov 3 05:03:01 PST 2000
At 10:52 AM -0600 on 11/2/00, National Center for Policy Analysis wrote:
> UP AND DOWN THE INCOME LADDER
>
> Politicians addicted to class warfare rhetoric use the term "the
> rich" as though it were some permanent economic class. But more
> moderate analysts point out that individuals move up and down
> the income ladder with startling frequency.
>
> Are those individuals with higher incomes right after graduation
> from high school or college still on the top rung 10 or 20 years
> later? Anyone who has attended a school reunion knows that the
> end results are often surprising.
>
> o A Social Security-based study has documented that more
> than 70 percent of male workers move significant
> distances up or down the income ladder in a span of only
> 15 years.
>
> o Earnings histories tracked by Social Security show that
> less than 50 percent of the people on the top or bottom
> rung in any year are still on the same rung 10 to 15
> years later.
>
> o On the bottom rung, the "stagnation rate" is only 35
> percent.
>
> o Another study, using the National Longitudinal Survey of
> Youth, has revealed that 60 percent of the young people
> who start out working for minimum wages no longer work
> for such low wages two years later -- and only 15 percent
> have minimum-wage jobs three years later.
>
> Some observers point out that many academics fail to appreciate
> the dynamics of economic mobility because they work in rigidly
> hierarchical university systems where promotion must be granted
> by one's seniors.
>
> The evidence is overwhelming, however, that such immobility is
> the exception, not the rule.
>
> Source: Bradley Schiller (American University School of Public
> Affairs), "Who Are the Rich?" Washington Times, November 2,
> 2000.
>
> For text
> http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-2000112193044.htm
>
> For more on Income Mobility
> http://www.ncpa.org/pd/economy/econ7.html
--
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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