Interestingly, in the Darity talk I mentioned above, he is asked that very question. It's at the 50-minute mark. (If you search for "Darity Brown 2016," it should be your top return. There is a purple backdrop.) His answer was odd, it seemed to me. He said, roughly, If you control for household income, that blacks actually have a slightly higher savings rate than whites. After a moment of reflection, it occurred to me that if you control for household income (and some other key factors), you can also make his claim of wealth inequality disappear.
I watched TGS episode with David Kaiser more closely this morning, and I was amused by something Glenn said. First, my complaint yesterday was that Darity (and others) did not consider age in their wealth analyses. I could only find charts with broad ranges, but Under 35 is vastly lower than 35-45, as it's difficult to accumulate wealth when young and first starting out. By the way, the only reason this age/wealth matter entered my mind while watching Darity was that Coleman Hughes had mentioned it on one of his podcasts.
Which brings me to Glenn's remark. Watching Darity, I gave him much credit for using median rather than average. Yes, yes, that's fair, I thought, That's the way to do it. Then, today, I hear Glenn explain why using median -- in this situation where the bottom half have, more or less, zero wealth accumulation -- is another trick. I had to replay Glenn's remarks a couple of times before I caught on. I laughed at patting my own back for catching one bit of subterfuge -- while completely falling for another.
Thanks for this....interesting behavioral data findings he cites. I think the metric that is most disturbing is the lack of any savings across all demo's compared to other countries.
Interestingly, in the Darity talk I mentioned above, he is asked that very question. It's at the 50-minute mark. (If you search for "Darity Brown 2016," it should be your top return. There is a purple backdrop.) His answer was odd, it seemed to me. He said, roughly, If you control for household income, that blacks actually have a slightly higher savings rate than whites. After a moment of reflection, it occurred to me that if you control for household income (and some other key factors), you can also make his claim of wealth inequality disappear.
I watched TGS episode with David Kaiser more closely this morning, and I was amused by something Glenn said. First, my complaint yesterday was that Darity (and others) did not consider age in their wealth analyses. I could only find charts with broad ranges, but Under 35 is vastly lower than 35-45, as it's difficult to accumulate wealth when young and first starting out. By the way, the only reason this age/wealth matter entered my mind while watching Darity was that Coleman Hughes had mentioned it on one of his podcasts.
Which brings me to Glenn's remark. Watching Darity, I gave him much credit for using median rather than average. Yes, yes, that's fair, I thought, That's the way to do it. Then, today, I hear Glenn explain why using median -- in this situation where the bottom half have, more or less, zero wealth accumulation -- is another trick. I had to replay Glenn's remarks a couple of times before I caught on. I laughed at patting my own back for catching one bit of subterfuge -- while completely falling for another.
Thanks for this....interesting behavioral data findings he cites. I think the metric that is most disturbing is the lack of any savings across all demo's compared to other countries.