My _State of Working America 1998-1999_ came in the mail...
Median family income for families where the householder is under 25 falls from $28,220 (1997 prices) in 1979 to $20,820 (1997 prices) in 1997?
F***!
Hispanic median family incomes fall from 69% of white levels in 1979 to 60% of white levels in 1997 (but Black median family incomes rise from 57% to 61% of white levels)...
The share of total family income earned by the bottom 60% of families falls from 34.5% in 1979 to 29.8% in 1997...
Average family income for the top 1% of families in 1996 is $326,777; average family income for the bottom 20% of families is $12,234...
Husbands in prime-age families in the top fifth of the income distribution worked an average of 2,450 hours in 1996; in the bottom fifth of the income distribution they worked 1,633 hours in 1996...
Wives in prime-age families in the top fifth of the income distribution worked an average of 1,595 hours in 1996; in the bottom fifth of the income distribution they worked 717 hours in 1996...
Lots of good stuff. If you don't have one, get one.
Brad DeLong
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- "Now 'in the long run' this [way of summarizing the quantity theory of money] is probably true.... But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. **In the long run** we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again."
--J.M. Keynes -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- J. Bradford De Long; Professor of Economics, U.C. Berkeley; Co-Editor, Journal of Economic Perspectives. Dept. of Economics, U.C. Berkeley, #3880 Berkeley, CA 94720-3880 (510) 643-4027; (925) 283-2709 phones (510) 642-6615; (925) 283-3897 faxes http://econ161.berkeley.edu/ <delong at econ.berkeley.edu>