Special Series
Best of the Daily Score
In a Series
How SUVs Can Save the Climate
This never fails to fascinate me.
The chart shows how much fuel is consumed over 15,000 miles by cars of different fuel efficiencies.
The curve matters a lot. It means that from the perspective of fuel conservation, it's not terribly important to trade in your Honda Civic to buy a Prius. But it's hugely important to trade in your Dodge Durango for a Toyota Tacoma.
I'll use some rough numbers to illustrate. You trade in your Civic, which averages about 32 miles per gallon, and buy a Prius, which gets a whopping 47 mpg. You've bumped up by 15 miles per gallon -- a big deal, right?
Sort of. Over the next 15,000 miles of driving, you'll have reduced your fuel consumption by 150 gallons. That's fine. But consider what happens when you upgrade your SUV. That's where the real action is.
Income Inequality: The Graphs Speak For Themselves
Via Kevin Drum, here's a doozy of a chart developed by blogger Afferent Input, comparing how the top income earners are faring, compared with everyone else.
The left axis on the chart represents how the distribution of income has changed, from 1979 to the present. The various lines break down the trends by income group.
The clear messages: the top 1 percent are doing great; the next 1-4 percent are doing pretty well; but the bottom 90% -- the bottom 5 lines on the chart -- are getting squeezed out.
To me, these numbers put the lie to the adage that "a rising tide lifts all boats." Really, it's lifting yachts. And the rest of us are foundering at best, sinking at worst.
Mind you, this isn't the end of the story: the chart shows relative income distribution, not absolute income. Adjusted for inflation, median income (best represented by the orange-ish line in the middle) has risen a bit nationally since the late 1980s, and remained roughly flat in the US Northwest. So compared with their parents, young entrants into today's middle class aren't so bad off -- at least, not according to these numbers.
It's just that the phenomenal growth of the economy over the last several decades -- and the extraordinary wealth generated by the stock and real estate markets -- hasn't done all that much for the folks in the middle and bottom of the income ladder. Fair? Not so much.
