On Feb 11, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Michael McIntyre wrote:
> The most likely sources, I think, are errors in measurement, working
> off the books, and assumption of greater consumer debt.
There's no doubt underreporting of income. Poor people work off the books or they would starve. And no doubt a lot of people in the bottom quintile are borrowing money or liquidating savings because of some personal crisis that threw them into poverty.
But, as the Census Bureau notes, most of the understatement of income occurs at the high end.
Doug