What if I told you that the income of the poorest fifth (or 20% ) of Americans grew by 19% in the last twenty years? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, it's a bad thing because the income of the middle Fifth grew by 28% and the upper fifth grew by 58%.
See the article on Yahoo news.
On the other hand, one might say that this is just about right. That we are in good hsape when we are worried about whether the poorest fifth's income is rising fast enough (as opposed to rising at all).
The other point to make is that most of the people who were in the bottom fifth twenty years ago aren't there anymore. My daughters are both currently in the bottom fifth as they are just starting off in life. As they gain work experience and education, their income will increase several fold.
Am I saying that we shouldn't not worry about the well being of people in the lowest fifth? Of course we should. However, we shouldn't approach it the way these think tanks are suggesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment