Scott Winship’s indispensable review of economic mobility studies finds the “U.S. (is) not an outlier” even if absolute mobility is less because growing income gap between rich and poor “says nothing” about whether it’s harder for poor kids to become rich. ... Read More
Two charts show income inequality hasn’t risen as much as we’ve been led to believe
Two charts show income inequality hasn’t risen as much as we’ve been led to believe. ... Read More
The San Antonio Express-News’ Michael Taylor Compliments The Upside of Inequality
The San Antonio Express-News' Michael Taylor Compliments The Upside of Inequality “Conard’s book challenges some deeply held beliefs. I want people … who think inequality is a major problem to read more smart people on the other side of the debate, like Edward Conard.” Is the wealth gap really all that bad? The financial crisis wiped out trillions of dollars of savings and capital in America, sparking an entire movement against the top 1 percent of earners and ... Read More
CBO Finds Median Household Income Has Grown 51% Between 1979 and 2014
The Economist reports, “the average American is much better off now than four decades ago,” and provides useful comparison of the U.S. Census’ and the CBO’s March 2018 estimate of U.S. household income growth between 1979 and 2014. The CBO finds after-tax median household income grew 51% between 1979 and 2014 to $73,200—far higher than the flat growth reported by the Census. Unlike the Census, the CBO’s income estimate includes taxes, non-taxable income such as pension ... Read More
A Fascinating Proposal From AEI to Fund Family Leave
AEI’s Andrew Biggs offers a fascinating proposal to fund family leave that avoids reducing women’s wages. He writes: "The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a law guaranteeing workers paid parental leave. The idea has broad public support, but how to pay for it? One idea is to mandate that employers fund it, but economists find employers offset the cost by reducing wages for female employees." "Our proposal is simple: Offer new parents the opportunity to ... Read More
New Study Refutes Piketty-Saez Conclusions on Income Inequality
New research from economists at the Treasury and Joint Committee on Taxation, (refereed by Emmanuel Saez and Richard Burkhauser) which accounts for government transfers, non-taxed income, taxes, other sources of pass-through income, and changes in the number of taxpayers per tax unit, finds income inequality has grown much less since 1960 than Piketty and Saez claim. The study finds: “Our measure of consistent market income [pretax, pre-government transfers] indicates ... Read More
The American Interest Reviews The Upside of Inequality
“In stark contrast to The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution, Edward Conard’s The Upside of Inequality...challenges the prevailing assumptions that animate progressive interpretations of inequality.Reading Sitaraman and Conard side-by-side... Conard’s reading of the evidence...is more plausible..." Neil Gilbert The American Interest March 20, 2017 Economic inequality is widely cited as the seedbed of social ills, sprouting plutocracy and corruption, stunting ... Read More
