Comments for Consider the Evidence

Comment on Slow Income Growth for Middle America by Who’s driving? | Stephen K Stetler's Blog

Who’s driving? | Stephen K Stetler's Blog — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:50:02 +0000

[...] used when work absolutely cannot proceed without an additional employee. Then there is this, the Median Family Income compared with the GDP per capita for middle United States: The disconnect between economic growth and middle-class income growth is due largely to rising [...]

Comment on The good society by John Berthelsen

John Berthelsen — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:09:55 +0000

I am a journalist in Hong Kong. How do I contact you for a telephone interview? John Berthelsen, Editor The Asia Sentinel Hong Kong

Comment on Making Ends Meet on $300,000 a Year by Tim Bo

Tim Bo — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:04:15 +0000

People are missing the point. The point is that the $300,000 club is only the upper 3%, which most people would say are wealthy. The truth be told, this is not wealthy. The budget is real. Sure, $600,000 sounds like a lot for a home, but it isn’t that much. If the “wealthy” can’t have nice things, what’s the point? Why work so hard? Why push to go to good schools, get good jobs if we are expected to have to go camping? I am not in this group, but I aspire to..and push myself every day. If the payout is that I can only buy a cheap Hyundai, well then I may as well quit now.

Comment on America’s inefficient health-care system: another look by Hmm

Hmm — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:00:28 +0000

“Twenty affluent nations are included”

How exactly were they chosen? I see Asl Aus Bel Can Den Fin Fr Ger Ire It Ja NZ Nor Por Sp Swe Swi UK US and one other I can’t read.

This doesn’t seem to be a list of the *most* affluent countries, like Qatar, Singapore, Kuwait, UAE,etc.

Were they cherry-picked to make the US look bad? Do the graphs of poor countries look the same?

Comment on Making Ends Meet on $300,000 a Year by mary

mary — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:33:15 +0000

My husband and I make a combined income of $300K per year. We certainly don’t live a luxury lifestyle: we clip coupons and work incredibly hard. 20-25% goes to savings for our retirement and our kids college funds, we have a significant amount that goes to student loans(we both paid 100% for our educations-grad school and law school) and a large chunk goes to childcare. I’m certainly not saying we’re starving but we aren’t spending on luxury items either.

Comment on Should income growth over the life course lessen concern about the great decoupling? by Mark Jones

Mark Jones — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:51:09 +0000

Blisssex loses all credibility by using the terminology “losers” and “parasitical”. Perhaps turning off Fox “news” is in order.

Comment on Making Ends Meet on $300,000 a Year by Erin

Erin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:46:26 +0000

Yes, you are are rich if you make $300,000 a year. If you want to live like you are earning $3,000,000 a year on a $300,000 income, that is your business.

Comment on Taxes at the Top by cades1 (@cadeguts)

cades1 (@cadeguts) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:22:57 +0000

Well if their is less loopholes in the taxes now I’d hate to see what it was like back then. Considering barely any top companies or people pay taxes now!
Were did you get this info?

Comment on Can government help? by Pat

Pat — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:04:25 +0000

If America cannot do better than other nations in quality of life issues, why would it be considered a leader in anything?

As the most wealthy nation on earth, where America places its priorities should be important to the world, and if it does not begin first with its children and parental leave policies, where is the right place to begin?

For moral society to be a reality, moral guidance is a necessity; for infants and toddlers, that comes from parents who care, from parents not forced to choose between child care or work.

Due to America’s wealth, it should have parental leave of 36 months if Sweden has 18 months, not less months. Failure to recognize the relationship between infant caring and societal caring means the inconsistent logic of prosperity over morality as a legitimate substitute. There is no church who ever taught an infant child morality. That comes from parents or not at all, and it is established before a child can even speak.

America cannot ignore its preference to establish a prison population by adulthood, and preach that it is a moral society.

Comment on Taxes and Inequality: Lessons from Abroad by “Tax Shifting And Political Power”: Why Romney Loves The States And Hates The Feds « mykeystrokes.com

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:30:42 +0000

[...] — you can move to a different country, but it’s harder, and given that the United States has a less redistributive tax and transfer system than any other advanced country, the option doesn’t really come into [...]

Comment on Is decoupling real? by houseseeker

houseseeker — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:43:39 +0000

I notice that the decoupling coincides with the stabilization of inflation rates at 2%. Has the central bank broken the mechanism by which wages were coupled to GDP growth?

Comment on Sweden: Image and Reality by The Surestart Generation: Labour List Article Reproduced | Working for Walthamstow

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:36:12 +0000

[...] yes getting angry – about resources that fifteen years ago would have been dismissed as some Swedish oddity, impossible to provide in a British welfare [...]

Comment on Social issues in America by nick

nick — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:23:36 +0000

i have to put my opioin on the issue of leagelizaton of the drug cannabis just think how many people die from ciggs alone there point made

Comment on Are Barcelona the best soccer team ever? by victor kwena

victor kwena — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:10:19 +0000

barca are on top of the world history of football. this is a new era whereby football is faster. nowadays individual effort is minimal. concluding that lionel messi is the best ever.

Comment on The Best Inequality Graph by Commentator

Commentator — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:00:55 +0000

I don’t know if anyone commented on this, but these graphs are meaningless. If individual X started his 20s in the lowest quintile and over the course of 45 years rose to the third or fourth quintile upward, typical for hard working, sober, responsible adult, his income is not still that of the lowest quintile over those 45 years. Wage levels are meaningless – what matters is how quickly people move between them, especially the poor. A lot of those people supposedly getting wealthier and wealthier in the top quintile were in the bottom quintile only ten years ago.