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20 oct 2011

Comparative Disadvantage

I wonder how the bottom 10% of the bottom 1% feel. This 0.1% of the population, tenth of the tenth, is lumped together with the other 9% of the top. But how much does a person in this group have in common with someone in the top 0.1% of the nation? Not very much. On the other hand, the bottom half of the top 2% is safe from the public outcry. Yet they are separated by a very thin line from the bottom half of the top 1%. At least the 1% of these two groups at the margins are almost indistinguishable.

4 comentarios:

  1. I've tried to make sense of the figures here, without success. The bottom 10% of the bottom 1% is "lumped" with the "other" "9%" of the top? Wha?

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  2. Well yes, with all the anger at the top 1%, we are fogetting that this top 1% includes people not in the top 90% of that 1%. In fact, the bottom tenth of the 1% is closer to the 2nd percent than to the very top of the 1%.

    What could be clearer? We should feel great empathy with the bottom part of the 1% who are closer to the rest of the 99%. ''

    So suppose that the top 1% is about 3,000 people. We should feel pity for the 300 poorest people of that demographic. Or maybe not.

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  3. It was meant to be a satirical post. I'm not sure any more what I meant exactly.

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  4. I think this is a great post. Lumping together the 99% which contains a variety of economic well-being that is really significant is problematic.

    Nobody seems to be willing to address the real differences between the top 1% of the high earners and the lowest percentage of that group. And those folks are not nearly as uniform as one might imagine.

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