Walkedaway is exaggerating a claim made by the conservative American Enterprise Institute:
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/some-amazing-findings-on-inco...
This is how they counter all the talk about the 1%. They suggest that 56% of people will be in the top 10% for one year or more. In their entire working lives.
Distortions include:
-income is not wealth
-some kinds of income are very uneven year-over-year
-jumping into the top bracket for only one year doesn't indicate income or class mobility
-most of the top 1% of income do in fact stay in the top 1% of income
People who earn a lot in one year but don't become wealthy may include:
-actors who get one TV commercial
-waiters at high-end restaurants who burn out
-realtors who get a few good sales in a row
-victims of disabling accidents receiving large insurance payouts
-oil and other trade workers in Alaska
-minor lottery winners
-people cashing in a retirement fund to deal with emergency spending
The fact that America is a land of random windfalls doesn't help with social mobility. A family with multi-generational poverty gets a windfall and immediately has to spend it just trying to catch up a bit.
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/some-amazing-findings-on-inco...
This is how they counter all the talk about the 1%. They suggest that 56% of people will be in the top 10% for one year or more. In their entire working lives.
Distortions include:
-income is not wealth
-some kinds of income are very uneven year-over-year
-jumping into the top bracket for only one year doesn't indicate income or class mobility
-most of the top 1% of income do in fact stay in the top 1% of income
People who earn a lot in one year but don't become wealthy may include:
-actors who get one TV commercial
-waiters at high-end restaurants who burn out
-realtors who get a few good sales in a row
-victims of disabling accidents receiving large insurance payouts
-oil and other trade workers in Alaska
-minor lottery winners
-people cashing in a retirement fund to deal with emergency spending
The fact that America is a land of random windfalls doesn't help with social mobility. A family with multi-generational poverty gets a windfall and immediately has to spend it just trying to catch up a bit.