Khross wrote:
Arathain:
You're challenging my statements about things for which I'm a documented and published authority. As such, I actually do need to ask what sorts of numbers you want to use and why. I also need to know why you think it sounds wrong before I attempt to consolidate the results of my research into something that makes sense to you or any of the audience here. You said it felt wrong and your research indicates it is wrong; I need to know what numbers you want to use and why before I explain my position; otherwise, I'm just wasting my time, as Shuyung pointed out.
I want you to use whatever numbers drew you to your conclusion. Your request makes no sense; it's like if I made a statement such as "this area will flood", and you ask me to explain, and I respond with "which numbers would you like me to explain with?" I've made a statement, it's obviously based on something, I should easily be able to explain where my statement came from.
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So, back to the questions at hand ...
If you want an answer, you tell me whose numbers and what numbers you want to use. My numbers won't show up here; that's not a luxury I have. I can, however, explain why using whatever numbers you choose.
? Use whatever numbers you like.
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The short answer is though ...
The vast majority of consumer debt is consolidated in the 2nd and 3rd quintiles of the income distribution. People above median income need less debt, have more savings, more investments, and more balancing items on their ledgers. While it's reasonable to assume most Gladers are probably above median income for a whole slew of reasons not readily apparent, the income/earning curve is not nearly as normalized as our government or pundits like to believe and median income is a terribly problematic number that comes from homogenizing 7 nation state level economies into a single system.
California is its own economy.
The rest of the Pacific Northwest is its own economy.
The North Eastern Megopolis is 2 economies: NYC and everyone else.
The South Eastern US is its own economy.
The Midwest is its own economy.
The Great Lakes industrial centers are their own economy.
No opinion. Take your word for it.
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Nevertheless, consumer debt -- credit cards, revolving lines of credit, etc. -- consolidates itself at the lower end of the income spectrum.
Intuitively obvious. Take your word for it.
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As far as government numbers, Median AGI works these best for these kinds of comparisons: AGI is "real" income -- the actual amount of direct purchasing or economic power minus debt a person can leverage in a year.
I'm assuming this is a different AGI than what I see on my taxes returns - i.e. that ignores any debt.
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1000% of AGI is currently the industry standard for a home loan or the maximum value of any collateral secured line of credit, which incidentally is precisely the problem with the Adjustable Rate Mortgage fiasco and collateralized debt obligations: our banks were selling goods people couldn't afford.
Take your word for it on the 1000%, the second part is fairly obvious.
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That said, the median value of a home in the United States is between $170,000 and $440,000 depending on region. We will exclude the following markets from our calculations though -- California, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. We do so because that changes the median home value range from $170,000 to $240,000. Those 3 cities and California totally skew the numbers. See the comments above about our multiple economies.
Fine, though it seems to me it would be easier to just look at one region.
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$240,000 is 800% of median AGI, and median AGI is $33,000. That's a pretty safe number for this, because $33,000 in AGI includes a whole bunch of people who avoid being impoverished by Federal standards solely because of the EIC and other external shifts in income distributions created by government policy.
A quick search put median AGI at $32,140 so we're in the ballpark. However, you just said above that median home values are $170k for the sample you are looking at. So, it should be ~5.2 times AGI, not 7.3 times AGI (as it would be if you used $240k).
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22% of Americans possess college degrees; average student loan debt is $22,000 or about 1 trillion dollars across 4.6 million Americans. Total household debt numbers are currently $12 trillion range for the nation, of that just over $8.5 trillion is houses and the other $3.5 trillion is consumer debt.
I'll leave this alone, for now, because will related, I don't see how this is immediately important.
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The thing you're probably missing is that using Gross Income vs. Net Economic Power skews the things downward and in the way expect. Net Economic Power indicates that people are leveraged at 900% of their salaries.
Well, you're throwing out some numbers I can't verify. But let's assume everything you say here is correct. I'm taking the following away from your statements:
1) Median house costs 5.2 times median AGI.
2) Houses are not "generally 10x salary initial purchase because of stupid politics."
Please correct any errors you see.