It doesn't seem like the areas are created equal; I'd expect a few more hotspots elsewhere (California), but so far I haven't found much, but then again "Data not available for metropolitan areas with fewer than 50,000 households."
Household income is a poor measure in my opinion. If I happen to live with a roommate who also earns the same as me, am I suddendly twice as wealthy? Of course not.
As the majority of households have two main income earners, and I live on my own, it is wrong to compare my income against that of a married couple. I would be much more interested to compare where my earnings are against individuals, not households.
Are you sure that the "majority of households have two main income earners"? I don't have data but most of the families I know are quite the opposite -- a divorced couple with kids maintaining two separate households, or a single mom/dad receiving no child support (for whatever reason).
I cashed out a bunch of options last year that put me in into seven figures for ONE YEAR. Next year I'll be making no salary since I "retired" because of my windfall.
I'm way better off than I was when I was making a low six figure salary, but by this measure I'll be worse off.
People need to remember that salaries and wealth are dynamic. Most of the people in the 1% weren't there 10 years ago and certainly won't be there in 10 years.
I don't understand your reasoning that they won't be there in 10 years. Money opens doors for you to make more money and to give your kids more opportunities. Unless you assume that people are essentially all addicted to gambling.
I shouldn't have said "most". It's more like 34% of the top 20% fall to a lower quintile over six years according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis study of households from 1002 to 2007. (http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/qr/qr3411.pdf) I should have looked this up instead of just trusting my memory.
The color-coding on this map was an interesting choice. Bright, stop-sign red is used for people whose income is in the top 1%. I almost felt as if being in the top 1% was a bad thing...
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[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 41.6 ms ] thread/me needs additional greed or the exchange rate of a few months ago for a better rating.
Edit: for those of you who were, like me, a bit confused about the purpose of the whole exercise: There's a related article at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/business/the-1-percent-pai...
It doesn't seem like the areas are created equal; I'd expect a few more hotspots elsewhere (California), but so far I haven't found much, but then again "Data not available for metropolitan areas with fewer than 50,000 households."
As the majority of households have two main income earners, and I live on my own, it is wrong to compare my income against that of a married couple. I would be much more interested to compare where my earnings are against individuals, not households.
I cashed out a bunch of options last year that put me in into seven figures for ONE YEAR. Next year I'll be making no salary since I "retired" because of my windfall.
I'm way better off than I was when I was making a low six figure salary, but by this measure I'll be worse off.
People need to remember that salaries and wealth are dynamic. Most of the people in the 1% weren't there 10 years ago and certainly won't be there in 10 years.
Still pretty significant.