The big take-away many have had from this diagram is that the things that help a person get out of poverty are becoming much more expensive while nonessential "toys" are becoming less expensive. From The Atlantic :
More than 80 percent of low-income households have a fridge, TV,
microwave, and stove. They can heat food and cool food and watch American Idol, no problem.
But the power to alter the temperature of your food and watch FOX is
not quite the same as being rich. Tens of millions of families remain
uninsured, millions more can't afford to go to (or finish a degree at a
high-quality) college, and millions more struggle to pay for daycare for
their children. Meanwhile, used HD televisions are dirt cheap and it's
never been more affordable to buy simple electronics....When you look at the items in red with falling prices, they
largely reflect industries whose jobs are easily off-shored and
automated. The secret to cutting prices (over-generalizing only slightly here) is
basically to replace American workers. If you can replace U.S. labor
with foreign workers and robots, you're paying less to make the same
thing.
This provides an interesting defense for the constant complaints about "welfare queens" with flat screens and new cars but no education for themselves or their kids. Turns out even if they deprived themselves of some material trappings it wouldn't make much difference anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis paints an interesting picture for the standard that many people have about America. You could achieve your dreams but, in the end it is a waste of money. I've become cynical about being able to make an easy living.
ReplyDeleteThe education point is way off of the norm and, to me, that is the biggest problem. You invest in education, you invest in the future. More educated minds=higher population of skilled worker. Pretty simple.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see data like these, I just wonder how much longer these trends can last. Can healthcare and college education continue to be so prohibitively expensive? I wonder how Obamacare and the move to mass online education programs (e.g. Coursera, EdX) will change the playing field.
ReplyDeleteThe items that low income individuals can afford, to a large extent, reflect the perceived standard. However, the difference between classes come in when one compares the quality and particular services that one can purchase. Education seems to be the least affordable. There is need for the government to invest in high quality education so that individuals have a chance to move up the social ladder and take full advantage of opportunities available to them.
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