Ross Perot, Back On the Charts (LVTFan's Blog)

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Pages I refer to often

Income Distribution in the US
How is our income distributed? Well, it is pretty concentrated. How concentrated? Take a look.
Progress and Poverty, by Henry George
Here are links to online editions of George's landmark book, Progress & Poverty, including audio and a number of abridgments -- the shortest is 30 words! I commend this book to your attention, if you are concerned about economic justice, poverty, sprawl, energy use, pollution, wages, housing affordability. Its observations will change how you approach all these problems. A mind-opening experience!
Wealth Concentration Tables from 2004 SCF: Bottom 90%, Next 9% and Top 1%
Aggregated data by net worth quantile, for various kinds of wealth. With calculations you won't find anywhere else!
Wealth Concentration Tables from 2004 SCF: 50-40-5-4-1
These tables show how concentrated the ownership of various kinds of assets are. With calculations you won't find anywhere else! This version is less aggregated: Bottom 50%, Next 40%, Next 5%, Next 4% and Top 1%.

Books I Value

Henry George: Progress and Poverty: An inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions and of increase of want with increase of wealth ... The Remedy
This is perhaps the most important book ever written on the subjects of poverty, political economy, how we might live together in a society dedicated to the ideals Americans claim to believe are self-evident. It will provide you new lenses through which to view many of our most serious problems and how we might go about solving them: poverty, sprawl, long commutes, despoilation of the environment, housing affordability, wealth concentration, income concentration, concentration of power, low wages, etc. Read it online, or in hardcopy.
Bob Drake's abridgement of Henry George's original: Progress and Poverty: Why There Are Recessions and Poverty Amid Plenty -- And What To Do About It!
This is a very readable thought-by-thought updating of Henry George's longer book, written in the language of a newsweekly. A fine way to get to know Henry George's ideas. Available online at progressandpoverty.org and http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm

Where Else Might You Look?

Wealth and Want
The URL comes from the subtitle to Progress & Poverty -- and the goal is widely shared prosperity in the 21st century. How do we get there from here? A roadmap and a reference source.
Reforming the Property Tax for the Common Good
I'm a tax reform activist who seeks to promote fairness and reduce poverty. Let's start with the enabling legislation and state requirements for the property tax. There are opportunities for great good!
A blog about Stamford, Connecticut, and its opportunities for progress and prosperity for all
Bringing it home to one medium-sized city's day to day issues and opportunities
LVTFan's blog: Connecting the dots between our most serious problems and what I've come to believe is the solution we need to embrace.
I'm a tax reform activist who seeks to promote fairness and reduce poverty in America. Land Value Taxation seems to me to be our very best hope for these goals, and for reducing urban sprawl and its concomitants.

Sites I enjoy

CityEconomist: City Economic and Financial News and Analysis
Dr. Gavin R. Putland
Land Rent will save the world
Land Value Tax | Jock's Place
Mark Wadsworth's blog
Mason Gaffney's website
Progress and Poverty: why there are recessions and poverty amid plenty -- and what to do about it! by Henry George
This is Bob Drake's excellent 2006 abridgment of Henry George's landmark book, Progress and Poverty. Its language and tone are very accessible. You can read it online or order hardcopy. And Bob's reading of it is available at http://www.hgchicago.org/audio
Saving Communities
Taxpayer: a more or less Henry George view of things
The Distributist Review

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June 16, 2008

Ross Perot, Back On the Charts

Link: David S. Broder - Perot, Back On the Charts

Ross Perot has started a new website, www.perotcharts.com, featuring graphic representations of what he sees as the most serious problems facing the US. I share some of his concerns, but think that several additional charts would be equally relevant.

Here's what I wrote to their "contact us" page:

I think you ought to consider including in your "issues" section several more issues:

Wealth concentration. The best source I know is the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, summed up by Arthur Kennickel in Currents and Undercurrents: Changes in the Distribution of Wealth, 1989–2004. I've taken his data and done additional calculations, available at http://www.wealthandwant.com/issues/wealth/50-40-5-4-1.htm which show the dimensions of the concentration of wealth in ways I don't think anyone else has looked at them. Mr. Perot may not regard wealth concentration as a problem or a danger to America, but I think much of his audience does, and that your website would be strengthened by the inclusion of these data. You might also bring in to the discussion the CBO report from a few years ago showing the concentration of equity income.
Related to wealth concentration and to the problem of Social Security, a look at the assets of people in their 50s and 60s. The best source I know is Edward Wolff's work on the subject; I can provide you citations both to his work on that age group and some more general work that would add perspective.
Wolff's work on Asset Poverty -- the percentage of Americans who have little or nothing to fall back on.
Income concentration data. By the way: IRS data is a very poor source for this, since it is generally Adjusted Gross Income, and much income never shows up, particularly among the wealthiest property owners. A very convenient untruth! Picketty and Saez is the acknowledged source for this; they update their data annually.
This one is harder: a look at the intersection of income and wealth data. There is some information in Recent Changes in U.S. Family Finances: Evidence from the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances, at http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2006/financesurvey.pdf

Posted on June 16, 2008 at 04:02 PM in connect the dots, cost of living, cui bono?, ending poverty, equality, incentive taxation, natural resources, opportunity, privilege, unburdening the economy, wealth distribution or concentration | Permalink

Tags: charts, Ross Perot

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LVTFan's Blog

Land Value Taxation will solve many of the 21st century's most serious social, economic and environmental problems, and promote justice, fairness and sustainability. We CAN have a world in which all can prosper.

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