We accepted the challenge from the Ford Presidential Library to locate President Ford in the 1940 U.S Census. We got him in under an hour living with his parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan
We accepted the challenge from the Ford Presidential Library to locate President Ford in the 1940 U.S Census. We got him in under an hour living with his parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan
morganovich, I think you are generally coerrct, although I think there’s more going on here. For example, merging these findings with anecdotal evidence (this can feed fallacies, but it’s still better than not trying) leads me to believe that a good part of this measured income mobility is age related. For example, going from student to careerist or from real estate trainee to senior agent to laid off may be examples of income mobility but don’t really describe what people tend to think of when the words come up. I won’t fully trust those statistics unless I hear a lot more depth. “Stuff” is a lot cheaper and prevalent in the US than Europe, and some of that is due to relative means. But part of that is culture, and part of that is the VAT taxing structure. Wouldn’t most Europeans tell you they are happier and less stressful than Americans, or is that my naivete? And like my grandmother, they may be able to afford a dishwasher, but think it’s a foolish expenditure. I speak with quite a few Europeans, but I haven’t gotten much insight on European poverty from them. As to the other part, there is a large service sector in the US that is clean, physically non-demanding, involving work that doesn’t require much education (although some employers require it anyway), where 2 earners can keep a family above the poverty line. It’s not a great living, but it’s not poverty. So the American poor are those that for various reasons can’t or won’t take part in that sector, or who have structural costs above the norm (health care costs, for example). However, post recession, these jobs are short of demand, and that’s worth watching. I actually believe life in the US is quite good across the board by historical standards and compared to global competition. But I think there are a number of headwinds that bear watching, and they do affect the lower end of the economic spectrum more than the upper end.
You speak to truth something is coimng commercial real estate in SoCal is a joke but the building continues, for what? While the rest of it set empty? Gear up people have a fallout plan, people at work think areas around Colorado?
Sorry, this comment from JuJu was deeetld by mistake. Overstating povertyWhen you hear that someone is “poor,” it brings to mind images of a person who may be homeless and malnourished. Fortunately, however, that description is not reflective of the majority of individuals labeled as poor by the federal government. The 2000 Census indicates that:1.73% of U.S. poor own automobiles, 2.76% have air conditioning, 3.97% own refrigerators, 4.62% have cable or satellite TV, 5.73% have microwaves.6.46% own their own homes with most of the rest renting their homes.On average a poor person in this country lives in a home with 1228 square feet which they often own, and as noted the home is likely air conditioned, with a refrigerator, cable or satellite TV, a microwave not to mention many other comforts.[47]Cox and Alm[48] conclude that if the American poor formed a country of their own, they would be as well-off or even slightly better-off than the typical family in most European countries.