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Comment by fighterpilot | Hacker News Reader

The author says that middle-class incomes have dropped since the 1980s, but the associated graph:

(1) is pertaining to wealth, not income.

(2) shows that middle-class wealth has increased since the 1980s, not "decreased"

The graph shows that middle class wealth increased from 1983 to 2001, then decreased from 2001 to 2016. The latter period (with the decrease) is the most pertinent considering the Graham essay is from 2021 and called "How People Get Rich Now" (emphasis mine).

It was this part I found most distressing. We found a way out and then it actually went backwards.

Good attempt to use semantic confusion to distract from the point, but his main thesis that 'the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer' stands up to your points.

Thats not what the graphs show, though. It shows the rich getting quite a bit richer, the middle getting a little bit richer, and the poor remaining approximately as poor.

If two sub groups of a distribution get a net positive in % that necessarily means the other part went net negative in the same proportion, seems a bit too far to argue against math just to defend the rich.

I read that graph very differently than you.

The graph shows middle class wealth at 102k in 1980s and 115k in the 2010s.

EDIT - these numbers have already been adjusted for inflation.

Adjusted for inflation, 102k in 1980 was worth almost 270k in 2010.

Using this calculator which seems to be using buying power instead of actual inflation. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

I am going to assume the original comment-or simply didn't think about inflation (common mistake...which is further understandable since the graphic doesn't make it obvious whether or not it is nominal dollars or adjusted dollars).

So in that spirit, here is another resource which talks about minimum wage and even included an adjusted minimum wage graph within:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inflati...

The minimum wage is not the only measurement for this discussion, but it does seem like since the 1980's the purchasing power represented by minimum wage has been falling (but at the very least is less today than then).

> which is further understandable since the graphic doesn't make it obvious whether or not it is nominal dollars or adjusted dollars

Except for the part where it says "Median family wealth, in 2018 dollars"?

Indeed, mea culpa it is too late. I ultimately had to go to the source to confirm:

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-...

Where it was clearer:

> Even so, the gains for both lower- and middle-income families were outdistanced by upper-income families, whose median wealth increased by 85% over the same period, from $344,100 in 1983 to $636,000 in 2001. (Figures are expressed in 2018 dollars.)

The graph is already adjusted for inflation, it’s in 2018 dollars. You can’t adjust it a second time.

Those numbers were already adjusted for inflation.

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