Comparing America to Ancient Civilizations

[Dragoon68]

Sorry, friends, apparently I don't know how to make the table show up correctly with UBBCode. I can do it with HTML.

 

[UnchartedSpirit]

I been asking everybody why you can't use HTML here...

But all these day laborers from maya are taking the construction, loading, and shipping jobs that my father is better at and has more expirence. Its really about his apprearence that's runining everything.

 

[Rocko9]

Originally posted by Dragoon68:


</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Extracted from US census data:
Mean income of families in 2004 adjusted dollars:

Year Lowest Second Third Fourth Highest
20% 20% 20% 20% 20%

2000 $15,490 $35,417 $55,664 $82,037 $172,123
1990 13,780 32,142 49,501 71,188 132,300
1980 13,920 30,302 45,777 63,510 106,931
1970 12,908 28,542 41,269 55,669 95,729

This shows that over the last 30 years people continue to make more each decade before. This isn't by any means the whole story and I'm sure, as with all data, there are many ways it can be evaluated. It is clear that each lower 20% group hasn't faired as well as the higher groups but yet all have still done better that in the previous decade. [/QB]</font>[/QUOTE]Still after you adjust for inflation there would be very little noticable gain for disposable income in the mid-high to lower income brackets.
Home intrest rates that took a downward trend was the most significant boost for income earners.

 

[elijah_lives]

The figures for the bottom 20% do not account for non-cash assistance from both government and non-government sources, which have substantially increased over the periods cited. Nor does it account for home ownership rates, which have soared, and are themselves a significant source of equity "income" that comes from cashing out the equity portion of rising real estate values.

Not that I don't have sympathy for some of the positions taken her, I do (I know what poverty is). But the statistics cited here are not accurate enough even to discern a trend, let alone specifics within that trend.

The bottom line is that without wealthy people wanting to increase that wealth through investment, along with the desires of the rest of us to acquire wealth and comfort, there wouldn't be any jobs worth having.

Remember the old joke about employment in the Soviet Union? "We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."

 

[Dragoon68]

Originally posted by Rocko9:
Still after you adjust for inflation there would be very little noticable gain for disposable income in the mid-high to lower income brackets.
Home intrest rates that took a downward trend was the most significant boost for income earners.

The figures quoted are adjusted for inflation to 2004 values as noted.

 

[Dragoon68]

Originally posted by elijah_lives:
The figures for the bottom 20% do not account for non-cash assistance from both government and non-government sources, which have substantially increased over the periods cited. Nor does it account for home ownership rates, which have soared, and are themselves a significant source of equity "income" that comes from cashing out the equity portion of rising real estate values.

Not that I don't have sympathy for some of the positions taken her, I do (I know what poverty is). But the statistics cited here are not accurate enough even to discern a trend, let alone specifics within that trend.

The bottom line is that without wealthy people wanting to increase that wealth through investment, along with the desires of the rest of us to acquire wealth and comfort, there wouldn't be any jobs worth having.

Remember the old joke about employment in the Soviet Union? "We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."

Right on target!

People, in general, today in our country are doing much better, with respect to material wealth, than their ancestors and most of the rest of the world. We still enjoy a very high standard of living.

Capitalism has its down sides but it sure does provide a means within which people with ideas, skills, and determination can exchange goods and services for personal wealth. It works a whole lot better than systems which depend upon a government to collect and redistribute wealth.

 

[Rocko9]

You can't knock our system of capitalism Dragoon and in most ways we do have it better than our ancesters ask anybody who went through the great depression and they will tell you so. I don't control how wealth is distributed but I witness every day as how it is invested in the work place and I can see that a better job can be done by American Industrialist where both worker and Company owners can benefit better.

 

[Dragoon68]

Originally posted by Rocko9:
You can't knock our system of capitalism Dragoon and in most ways we do have it better than our ancesters ask anybody who went through the great depression and they will tell you so. I don't control how wealth is distributed but I witness every day as how it is invested in the work place and I can see that a better job can be done by American Industrialist where both worker and Company owners can benefit better.

Agreed! That - making the best decisions - is the challenge workers and owners face. Fortunately, in America we're still able to make a lot of those decisions without the government deciding them for us. We get to profit or loose from them and either way it's our responsibility. The problem comes about when people decide the government can do a better job.