3 ms·

Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? There's luxuries like smartphones that have increased

by lovich 8y ago

Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? There's luxuries like smartphones that have increased but the basics have been slipping out of more and more people's hands

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? No, but their parents had longer to save. The average person born in 1990 has a higher average real wage than their parents did. Given the novelty of college debt, it’s difficult to say much more, but mean statistics point to a wealthier American population at all levels today than any time before. The issue is the rich have gotten richer faster, not that the poor are getting poorer.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > The average person born in 1990 has a higher average real wage than their parents did Mean, yes, median, less so. > but mean statistics point to a wealthier American population at all levels today than any time before. “mean statistics” don't tell you anything about “at all levels”, and are misleading because of the increasing top-heaviness of the distribution.
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    > Mean, yes, median, less so Median quite so [1]. Every class of American is getting richer, just not as fast as the ultra-rich. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N/ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N/
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      That's household income, not wages, and not comparing like age groups across time (because of population aging.) So it doesn't support the above claim about real wages for those born in 1990 vs. their parents being true when shifted from mean to median. Even leaving aside that outside of abject, starvation-level poverty, relative deprivation is a bigger contributor to disutility than absolute deprivation, such that everyone getting richer in absolute terms but the already rich getting rich faster would actually be a bad thing even if true.

by lovich 8y ago

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> Does the average American born after 1990 have more house or a better retirement plan than their parents? No, but their parents had longer to save. The average person born in 1990 has a higher average real wage than their parents did. Given the novelty of college debt, it’s difficult to say much more, but mean statistics point to a wealthier American population at all levels today than any time before. The issue is the rich have gotten richer faster, not that the poor are getting poorer.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> The average person born in 1990 has a higher average real wage than their parents did Mean, yes, median, less so. > but mean statistics point to a wealthier American population at all levels today than any time before. “mean statistics” don't tell you anything about “at all levels”, and are misleading because of the increasing top-heaviness of the distribution.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > Mean, yes, median, less so Median quite so [1]. Every class of American is getting richer, just not as fast as the ultra-rich. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N/ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N/
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    That's household income, not wages, and not comparing like age groups across time (because of population aging.) So it doesn't support the above claim about real wages for those born in 1990 vs. their parents being true when shifted from mean to median. Even leaving aside that outside of abject, starvation-level poverty, relative deprivation is a bigger contributor to disutility than absolute deprivation, such that everyone getting richer in absolute terms but the already rich getting rich faster would actually be a bad thing even if true.