alternate universe on income inequality

["jblau@xxxxxxxxx" <jblau@xxxxxxxxx>]

The following article is  cited by Jack Shafer in Slate. Do any PEN-Lers
want to explain what they did to obtain these conclusions?

Joel Blau


EconLog
Squeezed Up
Permanent Link (September 20, 2004)
Edited by Arnold Kling 
Arnold Kling  

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Squeezed Up, September 20, 2004
The Washington Post (possibly more reliable link here) does not use phony
documents, but the thrust of the story, including the headline "More U.S.
families struggle to stay on track" is at variance with the facts that they
present. The key chart, which is included on the jump page in an obscure
way and never discussed in the article, reports on the change in the
distribution of income, using 2003 dollars (I converted the data to tabular
format).Income Distribution Percent of Households 

 Range 1967 2003 

 $75K and up 8.2 26.1 

 $50K - $75K 16.7 18.0 

 $35K - $50K 22.3 15.0 

 $15K - $35K 31.1 25.0 

 under $15K 21.7 15.9 

 
The article emphasizes that the middle has shrunk, from 22.3 percent of
households to 15.0 percent. What it does not point out is that the two
categories below the middle also have shrunk, from 52.8 percent of
households to 40.9 percent. Adjusting for inflation, the percentage of
households with incomes over $50,000 has climbed from 24.9 percent in 1967
to 44.1 percent in 2003. 

The article's claim that it has become harder to stay in the income range
of $35,000 to $50,000 is correct, if what you mean by "harder to stay" is
that it has become difficult to avoid being squeezed up into a higher
category.

UPDATE: More data and analysis, from Robert Rector.

UPDATE 2: Bruce Bartlett found similar problems with a New York Times story
a few weeks ago.

For Discussion. In what ways do these data overstate or understate the
degree of upward mobility in the economy? 


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