income mobility

[Kayakhatch at aol.com]

I know that lbo-talk has already covered this topic but I'm writing a letter 
to the editor in response to a recent column by Thomas Sowell regarding 
income distribution and mobility. Hopefully some of you have read it. Most of 
it is easy to rebut. For instance he starts the piece by siting the federal 
reserve study by the Texas Fed. Doug has a critique of this study in one of 
the more recent lbo's so this is no problem. He also points out that 
per-capita wages have risen. This is no brainer because the distribution of 
the rise in wages is ignored so that he can make his point.

Where I would like some help is the allegation that there are more people in 
the upper 20% and that the households in the lower 20% have fewer people. So 
if these single people would get married or move in together their combined 
income would move them into the middle class. So using household income 
instead of individual income is misleading. The argument is that poor people 
are better off than the studies would suggest and their upword mobility is 
more than the liberal think tanks would leave us to believe. So what is wrong 
with Sowells use of demographics?