Re: Not always joking, it seems

In article <fpfvfa$8vt$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>David Friedman <ddfr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> ... the U.S. Statistical Abstract shows per capita money income in
>> constant (i.e. inflation adjusted) dollars roughly doubling from
>> 1967 to 2005.
>
>I'm really baffled by that claim.  In 1967, the average one-income
>family could afford to buy a house.  By 2005, the average two-income
>family could not, even though 20-year mortgages had been replaced by
>30-year mortgages.  In 1967, nearly everyone could afford medical
>insurance.  By 2005, tens of millions of Americans could not.
>
>Perhaps they're looking at average income instead of median income?
>The former can go up while the latter goes down if the rich become
>richer, which they have.
>
>I'll grant that the average person could afford enormously more
>computer power in 2005 than in 1967.
>
>> Using 2005 dollars, the 1980 figure is 17,473, the 2006 figure
>> is 25,036, so by that measure the Federation is understating
>> the growth.
>
>A 43% increase is not "almost doubling."
>-- 
>Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
>Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html
before emailing me.

House sizes were in general much smaller in 1967, and they didn't
have a lot of modern amenities.  I suspect that insurance that only
covered treatments available in 1967 would still be pretty affordable
as well.

			Ted
-- 
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