As per usual for Thomas Sowell, he pretends to offer insight when he actually attempts to confuse the issue. He relies on outliers and misunderstandings to make his point. For example, he says that someone who earns $200K from the sale of their home will show up as an equal statistic as someone that earned income of $200K yearly. No. No. No. That's not how it works. Money made from homes where the profit less than $500K is not counted at all as income for your own residence because it is understood that this money will likely go right back into the next home you buy in that same year. Now, if you are buying and selling homes for profit as a business, then that IS a business, and counts as income from that business.
His conclusion? "This means that statistics on income inequalities are often comparing high multi-year earnings with lower single-year earnings -- that is, comparing apples and oranges." He is taking an extreme minority of cases (which he calls "high multi-year earnings") and comparing that to the most common cases of normal yearly income (which he calls "lower single-year earnings") and saying these two are happening in such parity that the statistic about household incomes is "comparing apples and oranges". No, Mr. Sowell, it is you who are comparing apples and oranges.
1 comment
[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 10.4 ms ] threadHis conclusion? "This means that statistics on income inequalities are often comparing high multi-year earnings with lower single-year earnings -- that is, comparing apples and oranges." He is taking an extreme minority of cases (which he calls "high multi-year earnings") and comparing that to the most common cases of normal yearly income (which he calls "lower single-year earnings") and saying these two are happening in such parity that the statistic about household incomes is "comparing apples and oranges". No, Mr. Sowell, it is you who are comparing apples and oranges.