Can you list some examples of these decisions?
For example, what sorts of decisions are broadly confronted by those trying to move from the lowest quintile to the 4th quintile?
And what examples of decisions are made by those moving from the 3rd to the 2nd? Are they the same as the prior? Looking closer, your statement is rather subjective. Are you talking about economic decisions exclusively? Or are you including urination and sleeping as parts of these decisions?
And is it right-skewed? GINI coefficient implies it is.
Median and Mean are different. You do recognize that fact, correct? Or do you honestly believe increasing the lower income won't shift the median? How does that work?
Would you be surprised to find other Nations with bimodal distributions?
Way too simple, actually. An infusion of cash, by definition, would reduce income inequality. Or do you use some other numeraire to measure income besides "national currency"?
Here's a really dumb example to explain it:
A has income of $10, B has income of $100,
relative income ratio A/B = 10%
Give each an 'injection' of $20.
$30/$120 = 25%
Great Googly Moogly! They each got serviced for $20 a pop, and look at that income inequality drop!
But of course, in the long run, that money will siphon its way up the cone, creating a larger inequality in the end, ceteris paribus.
Hence, taxes and subsidy thresholds.
That was the whole idea behind the Negative Income Tax. To create that buffer which encourages employment-seeking behaviour, while preventing the inevitable negative conditions resulting from frictional or structural unemployment. It is a far more ideal automatic stabilizer over the schemes we currently employ.
And if the future is as corrosive as what I am seeing, there is going to be some need for that type of scheme if the goal is to sustain this socio-economic process we currently exist in. Strangely, it would probably be cheaper to do that instead of propping up a welfare bureaucracy susceptible to fraud in the first place.
Imagine... a NAIRU of 25%
Technocrat Utopia or Neo-Liberal nightmare?
That or redefine full-time as 20-30 hrs/week to spread the work.
Or invent a lot of classy jobs like "Official assistant pylon observer".
Meanwhile, in France...
Re self-direction examples: of course they’re subjective, empirical and observational. Are you of the opinion that self-direction isn’t possible? I’m talking about an inclusive mind set for success. If one can’t visualize the journey, how would one know how to start; or what metric to use for progress? How would one go about establishing an objective and/or goals? You don’t believe all the people in the top 5-1% income brackets got there with just pure luck, no thought and without effort, do you? I’m not talking about the “definition” of success, but rather the ability to formulate a plan with measurable metrics to become successful. Btw, I assume it goes without saying that not everyone’s concept of success is financial, but it just happens that this is the topic of this discussion.
Re distribution plot: of course it’s skewed. What do you expect would happen if you were to use the mean value? More or less skewing? The data isn’t symmetrical.
Re fix:
You’re looking way too short term. Assume a doubling of income for all min wage earners … assume everybody gets a bump, nobody left out, and all employers comply. What’s the effective time constant of the discharge rate for that infusion? At discharge, then what, another infusion? See the problem? How are you viewing this; as some kind of charge pump system? IMO, the infusion by itself is a waste of time and money; assuming the intent is a long term solution. But that’s the rub, right? Nobody wants to deal with this issue in the manner it would take to provide a solution; least of all the politicians. It’s too damn much work and expensive. Hence the “feel good” proposals . . . keep the dummies happy and their eyes off the ball.
If I read you correctly, our concerns re income disparity are exactly the same. But as I said to Buck, I don’t share his solution as a long term fix. We’re talking about decades of erosion and distortion; this shit didn’t happen overnight. I’d have to look at more data to figure out what the rate of departure is; but really does it matter? It’s a non-linear function. This isn’t going to be fixed with an instantaneous blast of income to the population of people on the very lowest rung of the income ladder. It’s going to take some kind of massive redo of the cognitive nature to more than just those on the bottom; what did the “magic man” call it, “hope and change” ---- ahaha!
Moving the chairs around on the titanic ain't the solution.
Question to you is, would you like to see a long term fix or a diversion? The naked pylon observer won’t cut it. I haven’t searched, but I’d bet; neither you or Buck have found a single creditable economist who believes a bump in the minimum wage is the long term solution to the income/wealth disparity issue.
Btw, just a comment about the stuff you’re writing in the mech thread; I don’t know from what you’ve developed your point of reference; but as somebody who is employed as a technical member on a product research and development team, I would suggest you get another perspective. In positions that require innovation, critical thought and highly skilled technical ability; AI systems won't be replacing humans in your and my life times. However, humans are being replaced in the mundane, repetitive, and less skilled manufacturing positions. We utilize machines in research and development. We design and build tool sets all the time to save cost and time in product development.
Your pessimism has clouded and limited your view of the future. Have a look at the rate of unemployment for highly skilled technical positions during the recent “great depression”. Specifically look at the engineering positions, chemist, medical doctors, ect.. I haven’t looked in a couple of years, but I suspect the numbers have only gotten better. Compare those rates to those for unskilled labor, manufacturing and none science related jobs.
We can’t find enough qualified experienced people to hire. Despite what you believe, this isn't all doom and gloom provided you’re qualified to do the work. What you and Buck don’t seem to grasp is that the environment for employment is “dynamic” and constantly changing. Therefore the skill sets need to be adaptable.
Humans aren't a static bunch. If you don’t have the skills it’s going to be tough. That’s just life, it applied during the cave man period and it applies today.