[yummyfajitas]

The most interesting data cited (in this essay: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/21/rising-wealt... ) is this report:

http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=5896...

(Previous HN discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2355141 )

This says that incomes have risen by at least 60% (relative to parental income at same age, inflation and family size adjusted) for all categories of Americans. The bottom 10% gained 61%, the top 10% gained 92%. Our increase in inequality is the result of a rising tide lifting all boats.

Another interesting implication of this: the alleged CPI-adjusted decline/stagnation in median wages must be primarily caused by immigration. If Americans are richer than their (American) parents, but incomes are down, then the decline/stagnation must be concentrated among people who don't have American parents.

[edit: added italics to parenthetical in 4'th line in response to locopati's comment. Also added link to essay citing this report.]

[jbooth]

I don't see how we get to "decline/stagnation in median wages must be primarily caused by immigration". You're only referring to income compared to parents at the same age.

If I call home to the suburbs, I can find a whole bunch of 35-55 year old white people named "murph" and "sully" who exceeded their parents' incomes at 25 on a generation-over-generation basis but have been personally stagnant/declining in income for the last 10 years. Furthermore, I can find another group of 25 year olds who are very much not making what people used to make in non-knowledge-worker jobs a few decades ago. The average might say otherwise but the average includes me. I didn't stay home.

That's the story of the last 30 years for many Americans who aren't high end knowledge workers, and there's a lot more of them than there are recent immigrants.

[yummyfajitas]

You're only referring to income compared to parents at the same age.

And this a weighted average of incomes roughly 27 years ago (the weight is the distribution of ages at which children are born).

The sample of people today includes only those people who's parents were in the united states 27 or so years ago. Call this group A. Call the complement (either immigrants or children of immigrants) B. Call the historical reference group C. Wages of A U B are roughly equal to those of C. Wages(A) > C. This implies wages(B) < C. If wages of A U B have not increased, but the wages of A have, this implies the wages of B must be lower than the historical average. Simple arithmetic.

So basically, the story is that Murph Jr. makes 60% more (Chained CPI adjusted) than Murph Sr. did at the same age. But the average of Murph Jr. and Jose (a recent immigrant) is lower than Murph Sr.'s (Chained CPI adjusted) wage.

Also, while Sully Jr. might make less than Sully Sr. did, the study asserts that the average of Sully Jr. and Sally Jr. (not to mention Tyrone Jr. and Poonam Jr. - remember how non-white males are also allowed to have good jobs these days) is up 60%.

[Duff]

Murph Jr. really doesn't make more money, as other costs have skyrocketed since that time.

The early 80's were the tail end of the era where a single income could purchase an average home. So while my income is about 50% higher than my father's at the same point in his career, I'm able to live in a similar type of home and have a similar lifestyle, although I'm in a small city where costs are far lower.

If I lived in the same neighborhood where I grew up in NYC, we would only own a home if we were renting the downstairs.

[jbooth]

Hm, that seems to hold together, but I still think some frame of reference must be being missed here because there are just so many more native born americans than immigrants. We must be comparing apples and oranges at some point in the equation, probably the underlying data behind both studies.

[locopati]

It should be clarified that you are referring to income mobility between parents and children, and not income gain over the lifetime of an average worker or change in average wages over time.