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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (464637)	3/18/2009 1:23:59 PM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576444

Sure there is. Just track the Gini and compare it to social conditions. In this country, for example, times when the Gini was high there were also times of greater social problems than when it was low. In addition, as has been pointed out, high Ginis are usually followed by an economic collapse.. Well, first of all the Gini has been trending upward in the USA for many years -- easily since the 60s. So, one could say, "Oh, social conditions have deteriorated over the period from 60-'09, and the Gini has been increasing, therefore, reduced income dispersion causes social problems". But I'm almost certain you've studied regression and correlation sufficiently to understand that one cannot draw this kind of conclusion as you have (i.e., causation). We could make precisely the same argument substituting "national debt" for Gini. Or, "Population growth". Or any of 100 other statistics that mean nothing.

To: combjelly who wrote (464637)	3/20/2009 12:08:31 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 1576444

Just track the Gini OK Year Gini Top 5% Share 1980 0.403 15.8% 1988 0.427 18.3% Gini Change 80 to 88= 0.024 Top 5% Share change 80 to 88= 2.5% Year Gini Top 5% Share 1992 0.434 18.6% 2000 0.462 22.1% Gini Change 92 to 00= 0.028 Top 5% Share change 92 to 00= 3.5% divisionoflabour.com Then lets look at more recent data 2007 0.463 census.gov So the coefficient went up more under Clinton than Reagan, and then was essentially unchanged under Bush. The 2007 data is only up .001 from 2000, and while the 2008 data isn't available with the stock market declines its probably down from 2007.