Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 21:24:06 +0100
From: Iain McKay <iain.mckay-AT-zetnet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: New book on anti-capitalism


Hello all

>"The critics suggest that there is little or no room
>for the ‘poor’ to advance, that class of people is
>essentially stuck in the bottom 20 percent. But this
>is unequivocally false. In reality, the bottom 20
>percent (like all other quintiles) is constantly
>made up of different people. A family in the
>lowest income quintile today, as recorded by the
>census data gatherers, will typically move up into
>a higher income category over the next five or ten
>years and be replaced in the lower category by a
>different family…"

actually, this is "unequivocally" true. Doug Henwood
in his new book (After the New Economy) talks about
how much people move up (and down) the income range.
The changes are not that great and what does happen
is that they move up to the next 20% (or back again). 
Very few people actually go from very low to very
high incomes. And even fewer go back the way!

And people are more likely to escape poverty in western
europe than in the USA. And the USA has a smaller "middle"
class as well. Which is somewhat ironic.

Iain