News About Income Inequality

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/09/news-about-income-inequality

An Associated Press story currently getting big play on Yahoo! News runs under the headline, "Census Finds Record Gap Between Rich and Poor," and begins, "The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record." The article carries no link to specific census data and doesn't even have a reference to the specific survey, referring only to "newly released census figures."

Check out the most recent Census press release that has anything to do with this topic and it states the following, "The change in income inequality between 2008 and 2009 was not statistically significant, as measured by shares of aggregate household income by quintiles and the Gini index."

What part of the phrase "not statistically significant" do the Associated Press, Yahoo! News, and the rest of the advocacy groups and politicians who are going to make hay out of this story for the rest of the day not understand?

by Ira Stoll  |  Sep 28, 2010 at 8:08 am Related Topics:  Criticism of Yahoo! News, Income Inequality receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list