This has been shown throughout history.
History also shows there might be one rich guy who will convince all these poor guys to follow him and he’ll deliver them to a country where everyone is equal. There will be no more poverty and we all work for the common good of the country. We will no longer have rich people. They’ll have to pay into the system more than anyone else to help bring up the poor. Does that sound familiar? Promises of we all drink great beers end up being we all drink horrible beers.
UCGal, you are denying those who work hard of their benefit. Either through bad corporate management or high taxation. You might decide to stay in a low paying job in an area with high cost of living, but I can say for certain that if that’s the case throughout the whole region, people will move. Which will lower the demand for housing here, which would reduce the cost of living. It’s already happening right now with the net out migration.
“It’s not the cost of living – it’s the cost of labor.” only work if there’s enough people afraid of moving or changing. I would not mind at all of moving if that’s the case. There’s a disparity in wage between SF vs SD. How do you explain that? They can find plenty more people willing to work for less in SD, why are companies still flocking to SF, SJ, NYC, etc?
Cost of living does not factor in to whether you are in a top income bracket or closer to median income. Raw data dictates it. I’m sure you’ve seen that standard bell curve type figures for salaries. It’s hard to justify calling someone on the far right of the curve as typical of the peak of the peak (middle) of the curve.
That’s the problem, it should be considered. It’s not how much you make, but how much you save that determine how rich you are.
Here’s another bit of data for you. In San Diego County, for 2006 the median income was $36,081, it was $67,935 for married filing jointly.
By your argument, two cops, nurse, teacher, firefighters will be consider upper class since they’re making 2x more than the median income. What kind of world are you living in, where you basic civil servants are considered not middle class?
