Sunday, September 19, 2010

What is rich?

This was a very interesting post by Brad Delong. There is a response by the original author here.

One thing strikes me immediately. If we look at the expected expenses of this particular person, the $60,000 per year in private school costs immediately jumps out as interesting. Perhaps part of why our public schools are having issues is that the Upper Middle class has pulled out of them?

Another thought is interesting; the author suggests that:

Returning to those “small government” days of 2000 would be a start, as this would result in a huge cut in the size of government.


But appears to be against returning to the same tax levels as 2000. At some point I would really like to see more concrete proposals for what to cut in order to make lower taxes a sustainable option.

3 comments:

  1. Prof. Henderson has unintentionally provided us with some fascinating material. I think the best part of the debate so far has been Delong's observations about how the shifting distribution of wealth makes the rich feel poorer.

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  2. P.S. Check out this one from Krugman:

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/estate-of-confusion/

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  3. "I think the best part of the debate so far has been Delong's observations about how the shifting distribution of wealth makes the rich feel poorer."

    I also think it is a good demonstration how one's expenses expand to meet income as well. People with very high incomes see things as necessary hat they would simply do without if they had less cash.

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