You are paying for it

[dylbert]

This has been an interesting early morning read. Thread begins with 'study' that most academics would consider suspect, if not outright invalid. Extrapolating findings from median values is folly.

35 years ago I was graduate student in economics at a well-known US university. My graduate assistant stipend, $175 per month, was mostly funded by two 'studies'. One study measured the impact of new navigable waterway system on rural unemployment in Mississippi & Alabama. The second one trained government workers on how to run 'Comprehensive Education & Training' programs. Both studies were funded through grants from US government.

Corps of Engineers wanted study that showed that new waterway system lowered unemployment. We delivered one. Carter Administration wanted to create new training & employment programs. We delivered training on how to startup & fund programs in rural South.

My point is give an academic a grant and you will get answer you want! Give these quasi-government think tank outfits money and they too will provide answer you want. And with today's technology, most anyone can mashup 'facts' from any number of 'studies' to support any argument or cause.

So find a study, start thread, and watch the fun begin!

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by dylbert

This has been an interesting early morning read. Thread begins with 'study' that most academics would consider suspect, if not outright invalid. Extrapolating findings from median values is folly.

35 years ago I was graduate student in economics at a well-known US university. My graduate assistant stipend, $175 per month, was mostly funded by two 'studies'. One study measured the impact of new navigable waterway system on rural unemployment in Mississippi & Alabama. The second one trained government workers on how to run 'Comprehensive Education & Training' programs. Both studies were funded through grants from US government.

Corps of Engineers wanted study that showed that new waterway system lowered unemployment. We delivered one. Carter Administration wanted to create new training & employment programs. We delivered training on how to startup & fund programs in rural South.

My point is give an academic a grant and you will get answer you want! Give these quasi-government think tank outfits money and they too will provide answer you want. And with today's technology, most anyone can mashup 'facts' from any number of 'studies' to support any argument or cause.

So find a study, start thread, and watch the fun begin!

I suppose one can disregard the particular study.
However, the point remains that wages have stagnated for most, and have risen quite dramatically for a few.
Theres also the pesky fact that corporations are rolling in profit, while taxpayers subsidize their low pay to the very people doing the work that makes them all that money.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by dylbert

My point is give an academic a grant and you will get answer you want! Give these quasi-government think tank outfits money and they too will provide answer you want. And with today's technology, most anyone can mashup 'facts' from any number of 'studies' to support any argument or cause.

So find a study, start thread, and watch the fun begin!

The only difference is a government backed grant/study will give the answers the government wants while billing the taxpayer, while these quasi-think tanks get their money from either the Koch bros. or George Soros etc. etc. leaving the taxpayer out of it.

Of course they are used to validate views correct or not that the gullible digest without question gaining allies/voters to that particular view.

And it's amazing how they work on some people. Take for instance Michael Bloomberg's recent pledge of $50 million for the gun control movement. You'd think America is under siege, murder victims galore however when you consider in 1974 with a US population of 211.39 million we had 20,710 murders or 1/10,207 and in 2012 with a population 313.91 million we had 14,827 murders or 1/21,110 you realize it isn't so. And to the contrary the murder rate has been more than halved. Yet the Danzig's of the world use Slate, Huffington or FOX and Infowars as their bible never questioning their 'teachings'.

(US Murder Rates By Year) http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by dylbert

This has been an interesting early morning read. Thread begins with 'study' that most academics would consider suspect, if not outright invalid. Extrapolating findings from median values is folly.

35 years ago I was graduate student in economics at a well-known US university. My graduate assistant stipend, $175 per month, was mostly funded by two 'studies'. One study measured the impact of new navigable waterway system on rural unemployment in Mississippi & Alabama. The second one trained government workers on how to run 'Comprehensive Education & Training' programs. Both studies were funded through grants from US government.

Corps of Engineers wanted study that showed that new waterway system lowered unemployment. We delivered one. Carter Administration wanted to create new training & employment programs. We delivered training on how to startup & fund programs in rural South.

My point is give an academic a grant and you will get answer you want! Give these quasi-government think tank outfits money and they too will provide answer you want. And with today's technology, most anyone can mashup 'facts' from any number of 'studies' to support any argument or cause.

So find a study, start thread, and watch the fun begin!

Also....what am i to take away from the 2011 cbo study that shows that since 1979, growth for the top 1% wage wise is over 275%, but for the next 60 % is about 40%? What about the finding that not only has income inequality risen in most developed coutnries, the change is greatest here?
and what am i to discern from the statistic that only 42% of americans believe that this inequality actually exists, regardless of all the findings?
In 2012, the wage gap was the largest since the 1920s...with the top 1% seeing a 20% gain, the other 99% saw a 1% increase.

What are we to do about the opportunities that once were here, and aren't any more? People say reward hard work, thats not happening. People discuss the good old days, but our economic landscape and job market isnt the same. We actually have more skilled workers.....and less jobs demanding skills.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Danzig

Also....what am i to take away from the 2011 cbo study that shows that since 1979, growth for the top 1% wage wise is over 275%, but for the next 60 % is about 40%? What about the finding that not only has income inequality risen in most developed coutnries, the change is greatest here?
and what am i to discern from the statistic that only 42% of americans believe that this inequality actually exists, regardless of all the findings?
In 2012, the wage gap was the largest since the 1920s...with the top 1% seeing a 20% gain, the other 99% saw a 1% increase..

Celebrate the fact the study you quote is dated, conveniently ending with 2007 stats, though published in 2011 and per the same CBO curiously from 2007-2009 the trend was quite different. Then again we must ask who initiated the 2011 study that stopped with 2007 stats?

Average before-tax income fell between 2007 and 2009 for households in all income quintiles, but the amount of that decline varied by quintile. The declines in before-tax income were 5 percent or less for households in each of the four lowest income quintiles and 18 percent for households in the top quintile. For households in the top one percent, income fell by 36 percent, reducing their share of before-tax income from 18.7 percent to 13.4 percent.

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43373

[jms62]

The new American Dream

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101597957
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...#ixzz2zXcacB4r

[Clip-Clop]

Originally Posted by jms62

The new American Dream

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101597957
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...#ixzz2zXcacB4r

We call it "contract work" in both mine and the wife's fields. Lots of people are clamoring to get it.