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Old 10-15-2011, 02:47 PM   #2
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigV View Post
That's one theory... or you could be reading it wrong. You are overthinking it.
That is partly the case as "cumulative" is not the fact -- which is why I puzzled over it.

The part that remains the case is that the rich get richer during good times, and the graph starts in the bad times and ends in the good times. We patiently wait for a graph update, as the next few years will show a hefty decrease for the 1%.

(Also, these numbers are for households instead of per-capita, which is misleading, as the household income may be a household of one, or an extended family.)

The numbers seem to have not been developed, except for the IRS figures for the top 5%. And here's where figures lie and liars figure: going from upturn to downturn, the numbers for the top 5% are about the same in 2000 as they are in 2009.

There's another aspect to this: wealth is not like a big pie, where if the people at the top eat a bigger piece, that means people like you and me are left with a smaller piece.

The graph shows us how this is not the case. Where the top 1% lines are moving up, all the other lines are moving up too! WTF?

That means if you want to improve your own muddy situation, you should root for the 1%. If the 1% do well, in no time at all, it'll feel like it's 2007 again.
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