On Apr 6, 2010, at 3:29 PM, Alan Rudy wrote:
> Does ANYONE have any idea where Brooks got this?
> "Over the past 10 years, 60 percent of American adults made more than
> $100,000 in at least one or two of those years, and 40 percent had
> incomes
> that high for at least three."
He attributes it to Rose, right? I'm guessing that this is household income, not individual income. Annual wage & salary earnings at the 90th percentile are around $80,000 - so we're talking around the 95th. The lower limit of the top quintile is around $100,000.
American life is very volatile - it's quite possible that people could have one good year every five or ten. The reverse is probably also the case, or maybe more so - probably something like 60% spent a year or two in poverty as well. It's dishonest to focus just on the good news.
> Someone recently reported on Doug's show that 50% of American
> households
> earn below $44,500... which fits with everything else I've read.
Median HH income in 2008 was around $50,000, so that's a little low. It was true around 2004 or 2005.
Doug