From: sdbst5+@pitt.edu (Stephen D Brener)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Subject: Re: Who owns what? (was: My thoughts on Clinton's character)
Date: 25 Jul 92 03:27:12 GMT
Followup-To: alt.politics.clinton
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <1992Jul21.194040.9227@iti.org> aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) writes:
>In article <1992Jul21.184453.19350@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> mzhao@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Min Zhao) writes:
>
>>>>90% of the nation's wealth is in the hands of 1% of the people:
>
>>    I read it in todays Columbus Dispatch containing the same statement , that
>>the top 1% of the nation now have more wealth than the bottom 90%, 
>
>These two statements are not the same.
>
>>and in 1980,
>>America was #1 in wages an average person made, now it's #13 in the world. 
>
>Also misleading. Measuring wages is open to interpertation due to fluxuations
>in currency. In 1980 for example, the $$ was stronger than it is now.

I think that the author was trying to bring to our attention our decling 
standard of living vis-a-vis our neighbors.  Certainly we are not doing as
well as we were before in relative terms.  I would like to know if this 
figure was adjusted for these fluctuations.  They probably were, if they were
performed by reliable analysts.  Otherwise their meaningfullness is 
*diluted* but probably not fully destroyed.  And they probably do 
indicate qualitatively what is happening.  Domestically, according to 
the Office of Technology Assesment (of the US Congress), real manufacturing 
wages peaked in 1978, and have been declining since.  (A slightly, but not
unrelated issue I admit).
>
>However if you measure labor vs buying power the USA is still number one.
>This means that, for example, the average worker in the US needs to work
>fewer hours to earn the money to buy a produce than anywhere else.
>
Yes, but first they need to work.


>>   I don't know the figures. But I do know America has the largest number of 
>>billionares in the world, and the largest  number of people below poverty
>>line. 

When I saw this I thought it was only a matter of time until some knee-jerk
conservative responded with a "Hold on there.  Are you actually telling me
that there are more people living in poverty in the USA than in India or
China or some other third world nation?"  And then there it was...
>
>Hold on a second here. Are you actually telling me that there are more
>people living in poverty in the USA than in India or China or some other
>third world nation? You can't possible be serious!
>

I'm sure the author was referring to advanced industrial nations.  I also
think it would be obvious to any thinking person.  I had the pleasure of 
living and working in Japan for a number of years.  The Japanese I knew who
lived here in the U.S.for an extended period of time and who were interested
in social conditions and willing to talk frankly were shocked at how 
prevelant poverty is here.  They often asked how the world's beacon of 
democracy and opportunity could be host to such an astoundingly large
underclass.  There was no satisfactory answer as far as I was concerned.


>Does the average person actually believe this? I guess that's why
>Clinton is ahead in the polls.
>
>  Allen

I don't know about the average person, but yes, Allen, an informed person
would.
>
>-- 
>+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>| Allen W. Sherzer | "If they can put a man on the Moon, why can't they     |
>|  aws@iti.org     |  put a man on the Moon?"                               |
>+----------------------276 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+


Steven Brener
Xref: sparky alt.politics.clinton:723 talk.politics.guns:17958