Rating: 
Summary: The "we" in the title is the middle class.
Review: I teach this book in my philosophy of social science class. It is easy and entertaining to read, and full of provocative claims because it makes no attempt at being balanced or cautious. In general, they do a decent job explaining basic economic concepts. It is, thus, an excellent book to analyze statistical reasoning. For example, throughout the book they offer data on the "average" or "per capita" American rather than providing the more illuminating median figures, but when they deal with executive pay suddenly the median (the middle of a distribution) is the right number, thus, underplaying excess at the top. When they try to convince the reader that wages are not the right tool to measure living standards, they use the buying power of a "typical manufacturing worker." Not only is that worker disappearing (as their own data shows, but they call it "improvements in productivity") and thus not very typical, he cannot be a good proxy for somebody on minimum wage, which has not kept up with wages in manufacturing sector. Nevertheless, the book is unintentionally very insightful: it turns out that on the authors' own account the reason why even the poor are better off (as measured by their ability to consume) than they were a generation ago is, besides the lower real cost of some necessities, the existence of welfare payments! Of course, this is not trumpeted. Moreover, when trying to show (in chapter 4) that minorities and women are sharing in rising living standards, they inexplicably shift, as my students pointed out to me, from their favored measure (consumption) to data on wage-income, which they had castigated as misleading earlier in the book. Even so, they conclude the chapter with the remark, "income distribution doesn't say much about...the opportunities [an economy] offers." (88) Thus, undermining their own argument! Finally, when they analyze upward mobility they fail to control for class; so the post-collegiate income performance of students, including those that have upper middle-class and wealthy backgrounds, is cited as evidence of upward mobility. Furthermore, their data-set excludes the homeless and others that do not have regular sources of income. So, their result tells us little about the upward mobility of what is known as the (new) "underclass."
Rating: 
Summary: Cox is a Fascinating 21st Century Economist
Review: Investors will find that the book grabs them with actual data shedding light on what is really happening in our economy. Kudos to Cox for revealing the larger trends that investors need to know about to reach superior performance.Investors will profit from education into the 5 waves of progress that will guide the 21st century. The book concludes with powerful insights into the most important government policies for promoting economic growth. This last section puts Cox at the forefront of proactive economic science. This as one of the best economics books that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: The good news is the bad news is wrong
Review: Like Will Rogers said: "It ain't what you don't know that hurts you. Its what you know that just ain't so that will hurt you." Or words to that effect. Like Ben Wattenberg's earlier book (whose title I used for this review), Myths of Rich and Poor explains that much of what you have been led to believe about wealth and poverty is simply incorrect. The authors drill down into census data, the basic "facts" of American life, to show that we are not getting poorer. Our homes are bigger, food is cheaper, gas is less expensive, many 'poor' people enjoy home and car ownership, air conditioning, cable television, and an entire collection of things that most truly poor people would never even dream they could own. Like David Landes' Wealth and Poverty of Nations and the best-selling Millionaire Next Door, this book does a better job of really reading and analyzing what is right -- and wrong -- about the American market economy. All of these books show that finishing high school, staying married, and getting a job are th best poverty prevention strategies available and that the American market facilitates these things better than any other system. There are no guarantees and much of it is up to the individual. You just have to have the desire, direction and discipline to win your share of the American dream.
Rating:
Summary: this book holds up over time
Review: Michael Cox, of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank and Richard Alm, a journalist by way of the university of Kansas, wrote this book five years ago prior to the 2000 presidential election. It addressed the same issues that we're dealing with today in 2004: how well off is the electorate and the definition of "real income"; the issues of downsizing or job exportation, an offshoot of the economic condition called creative destruction; the trade deficit as a sign of national economic strength or weakness; and how income mobility between the earning quintiles is alive and well in America i.e those who start poor don't remain poor, they can move up quickly. In fact, no one "oppresses them", the caveat of Marxist class warfare ideology. Isn't it amazing that students are still being taught the efficacy of Marxism in our universities by professors who act as hand-maidens for the Denmocratic Party (which has fallen off the proverbial cliff to the Left)? You might suppose that the leaders of the Democratic Party, the one's who talk about the "two America's" and the wealth division that separates them might avail themselves of the realities extant in the country today, but no, they'll probably go down to defeat by a far larger margin than the current polling indicates due to their hard headed need to fight yesterdays wars. In fact, the workers of the world never did unite so the political Left has had to export a whole new working class of illegal immigrants to serve their mythology and win elections. Keeping that in mind, this book addresses the continuing progress of these very immigrants. For starters (in 1997) the richest 1% of earners earned 17% of the income, but paid 35% of the taxes. Today they pay closer to 40%. By contrast, the bottom 50% of earners earned 14% of the income, but paid only 4% of the income taxes. To flesh this out, the top 25% of wage earners paid 82% of income taxes while earning far less of a percentage of the income. You'll also learn here that the percentage of Americans owning any household appliance you can name has increased markedly in the past 30 years. That passage of time has also yielded an additional benefit by requiring fewer hours of labor with regard to providing sufficient income for those purchases. The book shows how America, with its rule of law protecting personal property rights, is the most successful economy in world history (and it's pulling away from the rest.) It highlights how we're immeasurabley better off than our forefathers - for easy reference, see Julian Simon and Stephen Moore's book "It's getting better all the time: 100 trends over the last 100 years." There you can see that longevity increases yearly which is a a pretty good ongoing indicator of the direction of our quality of life. When Virginia Postrel of Reason magazine says that "no honest debate can ignore this book", she hits the nail on the head because the neo-communist left-wing in America doesn't want an honest debate. While facts don't win arguments a democracy via a constitutional republic, as imperfect as it is, is still the best political system available on the planet. Read "Myth's of the Rich and Poor" to find out why. This is a terrific book for getting your head on straight when it comes to the realities by which all of us live. Buy a copy for your children and discuss it with them; they won't learn about it in school.
Rating:
Summary: this book holds up over time
Review: Michael Cox, of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank and Richard Alm, a journalist by way of the university of Kansas, wrote this book five years ago prior to the 2000 presidential election. It addressed the same issues that we're dealing with today in 2004: how well off is the electorate and the definition of "real income"; the issues of downsizing or job exportation, an offshoot of the economic condition called creative destruction; the trade deficit as a sign of national economic strength or weakness; and how income mobility between the earning quintiles is alive and well in America i.e those who start poor don't remain poor, they can move up quickly. In fact, no one "oppresses them", the caveat of Marxist class warfare ideology. Isn't it amazing that students are still being taught the efficacy of Marxism in our universities by professors who act as hand-maidens for the Denmocratic Party (which has fallen off the proverbial cliff to the Left)? You might suppose that the leaders of the Democratic Party, the one's who talk about the "two America's" and the wealth division that separates them might avail themselves of the realities extant in the country today, but no, they'll probably go down to defeat by a far larger margin than the current polling indicates due to their hard headed need to fight yesterdays wars. In fact, the workers of the world never did unite so the political Left has had to export a whole new working class of illegal immigrants to serve their mythology and win elections. Keeping that in mind, this book addresses the continuing progress of these very immigrants. For starters (in 1997) the richest 1% of earners earned 17% of the income, but paid 35% of the taxes. Today they pay closer to 40%. By contrast, the bottom 50% of earners earned 14% of the income, but paid only 4% of the income taxes. To flesh this out, the top 25% of wage earners paid 82% of income taxes while earning far less of a percentage of the income. You'll also learn here that the percentage of Americans owning any household appliance you can name has increased markedly in the past 30 years. That passage of time has also yielded an additional benefit by requiring fewer hours of labor with regard to providing sufficient income for those purchases. The book shows how America, with its rule of law protecting personal property rights, is the most successful economy in world history (and it's pulling away from the rest.) It highlights how we're immeasurabley better off than our forefathers - for easy reference, see Julian Simon and Stephen Moore's book "It's getting better all the time: 100 trends over the last 100 years." There you can see that longevity increases yearly which is a a pretty good ongoing indicator of the direction of our quality of life. When Virginia Postrel of Reason magazine says that "no honest debate can ignore this book", she hits the nail on the head because the neo-communist left-wing in America doesn't want an honest debate. While facts don't win arguments a democracy via a constitutional republic, as imperfect as it is, is still the best political system available on the planet. Read "Myth's of the Rich and Poor" to find out why. This is a terrific book for getting your head on straight when it comes to the realities by which all of us live. Buy a copy for your children and discuss it with them; they won't learn about it in school.
Rating:
Summary: Antidote to daily barrage of economic doom by the media.
Review: Review from AWL News, the monthly newsletter of All Ways Learning of Silicon Valley. Shattering Modern Economic Fables The media bombards us daily with stories about economic hardship: corporate layoffs, trade deficits, homelessness, minimum wage battles, families in poverty. Bad news sells newspapers and increases television ratings - it's ironic that the media's own economic interest is served by trumpeting economic disaster. These messages have been repeated so often they've been exalted to the position of Conventional Wisdom. Everyone knows by now that the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer, that we've become a nation of hamburger flippers, that both parents need to work in order to support a family, and that our children are the first generation in our history who will not be better off than their parents. Enter Michael Cox, an economist with the Federal Reserve, and Richard Alm, a business journalist. As they state in Myths of Rich & Poor, "these statements of America's economic failure are not just wrong, but, in each and every instance, spectacularly wrong." A combination of statistics and elegant methodologies are the tools they use to shatter these modern economic fables. The clarity of their writing doesn't hurt either. It's impossible to read this book without realizing that we are winning the war on poverty. Today's average "poor" families have goods and services that rival yesterday's middle class families: 60% have microwaves, 50% have air conditioners, 93% have color televisions, and 60% have videocassette recorders. More impressive is the income mobility within our economy. Most poor families don't stay poor. Over the sixteen year period tracked by one study, 95% of the families in the lowest income quintile climbed the economic ladder to higher quintiles. Over 80% moved to the top three quintiles, qualifying them as middle class or better. As Cox and Alm repeatedly demonstrate, "the rich may have gotten a little richer, but the poor have gotten much richer." In another enjoyable section, Cox and Alm deftly reverse the perception that we are becoming a "nation of hamburger flippers." Fast-food jobs supposedly represent the shift of our economy to low-paying service sector jobs. But Cox and Alm point out that everyone from brain surgeons to computer programmers are considered part of the service sector. Reading this book gives you a perspective you would not otherwise get from the mainstream media. With their relentless daily focus on bad economic news, the media completely miss the big picture - the American Dream is being realized by more people than ever before. As we prepare our children to participate in this economic miracle, it's good to know that boundless opportunities lie ahead for them.
Rating:
Summary: The spin does not match the facts.
Review: The authors clearly have a good grounding in basic economic concepts, which they discuss clearly. They make a number of excellent points, but it is sometimes hard to find them among the spin. Early in the book, the careful reader will notice that many of the statistics that they use to demonstrate improved living standards across the economic scale are significantly dependent on a variety of social programs such as welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and social security. This is particularly true of the statistics used to show that "Even the Poor Have More". Although it is not mentioned as explicitly, the government role in education has also been very important, whether for public schools, public colleges, or even the G. I. Bill. All of these have played a large role in bringing prosperity to many people, not just the rich. At the end, however, they forget about any helpful role of government and give all of the credit to free enterprise. Perhaps they had forgotten the first chapter of the book by the time they wrote the last chapter. Even accepting the facts as given, they don't justify the spin. The FACTS given here show the benefits of both free enterprise and the role of government.
Rating:
Summary: The spin does not match the facts.
Review: The authors clearly have a good grounding in basic economic concepts, which they discuss clearly. They make a number of excellent points, but it is sometimes hard to find them among the spin. Early in the book, the careful reader will notice that many of the statistics that they use to demonstrate improved living standards across the economic scale are significantly dependent on a variety of social programs such as welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and social security. This is particularly true of the statistics used to show that "Even the Poor Have More". Although it is not mentioned as explicitly, the government role in education has also been very important, whether for public schools, public colleges, or even the G. I. Bill. All of these have played a large role in bringing prosperity to many people, not just the rich. At the end, however, they forget about any helpful role of government and give all of the credit to free enterprise. Perhaps they had forgotten the first chapter of the book by the time they wrote the last chapter. Even accepting the facts as given, they don't justify the spin. The FACTS given here show the benefits of both free enterprise and the role of government.
Rating: 
Summary: An unconventional, but accurate, perspective
Review: This book dispels the myths and inaccuracies that infiltrate media reporting. These are America's best days, its high noon of empire. We have achieved full employment in our economy but without the menace of inflation, we have turned budget deficits into budget surpluses, negative statistics like crime and poverty are at 30-year lows. And yet there is a sizeable portion of the country's elite who see a nation suffering from material poverty and injustice (which they'll gladly rescue us from!) There are three main criticisms from the left concerning the New Economy which has grown almost continually - and often spectaculaly since 1983. The first is that the boom times have hit their peak and bad times are right around the corner. This is because globalization and information technologies - the engine of our freedom and high living standards - are too "chaotic" and need to be reigned in by government agencies. Unless they are put at the nation's helm - and soon - we face a repeat of the Crash of 1929. Funny, we've been hearing this Chicken Little talk since the mid-90s and yet the soaring stock market has done more to achieve the socialists' dream of citizen ownership of the economy than any government planning or tax confiscation scheme. So much for that. Second, the left argues that the rich are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer. As this fine book proves, this is not true. All classes are benefitting from this explosion of welath. More importantly, class mobility remains a fixture of American life. Statistics show that "poor" families are often middle-class within a decade. Moreover, what does the left mean by "poverty" when air conditioning and color TVs are a staple of nearly every American household? Soon Internet access will join that list as long as Washington minds its business. Perhaps the liberals should visit the Third World to see what true poverty is! Oh, that's right - they want to roll back globalization - the only means of uplifting the world's poor. That's odd. The last and futile argument by the left is that our humming economy doesn't really exist. We're really a nation of hamburger flippers who also work part-time at the local Walmart to pay off our debts. My answer to that, and as the authors of this book reiterate, is look around you: Is America really that bad? Does their sad rhetoric reflect the realities of your daily experience? Of your life? In most cases, the answer is "Of course not." The anger of the ancient liberals and closet socialists is that the engine for the greatest boom in history is free enterprise and not the "industrial policies" that they would coerce us into. Their theories and academic treatises have been discredited and to hold on to their credibility and self-respect, they denounce their opponents in the private sector who have done the most to bring freedom and high living standards to Americans of all classes. If Americans continue to read true and honest books like this one, we'll never have to go back to the past.
Rating: 
Summary: Specious Arguments at Their Best.
Review: This book places a lot of emphasis on material goods that we enjoy in America: TV's; dishwashers; cars with air conditioning; refrigerators; airplane travel; computers; VCR's; long distance calls; microwave ovens; washing machines; etc. It also emphasizes the easy availability of common medicines: penicillin; over-the-counter aspirin; cough syrup; etc. Much of these things, when they were created, and initially brought before the public, were expensive. They were considered "luxuries". Therefore, only the rich could benefit from these goods. However, through mass marketing, Americans at all social-economic levels, could purchase, and "improve" their lives, with these goods. Poor people have computers at home, just like the rich. Poor people have cars, just like the rich. Poor people have access to medical care, just like the rich (though it may not be as good). And so on, and so on. "Myths" tackles this materialism to emphasize two points. First, Americans today enjoy a level of comfort and convenience that their parents and grandparents didn't enjoy until later, or never at all. Before the refrigerator, our grandparents used an "ice box". Before the convenience of washing machines, our grandparents used scrubbing boards to clean clothes. And so on, and so on. Second, even the poorest in America enjoy comfort in ways that poor people in third-world countries do not. Necessties such as clean water, schooling, and immunization are considered luxuries to third world people, let along air conditioning and cable TV. Cox and Alm emphasize that very few people live in abject poverty in America, the way that some in 3rd world people are suffering. Therefore, why do we complain so much. However, many people in America go overboard in their quest for the good life. Therefore, they spend above their means. What are the results? Credit card debt. Bankruptcies. Evictions. Foreclosures. Virtually no savings. Almost no money to fall back on. Living in your air-conditioned mansion with satellite cable, the SUV in the driveway, and computer with laser printer do not suggest financial stability. Many people get this stuff on credit, and they go under. The book does not deal with that, the consequences of overconsumption. Hunger is a fact of life in America. So is homelessness, lack of proper medical care, poor education, and joblessness. This book deals far too much with frivolous material goods, and tries to convince the world that owning a vacuum cleaner makes your life complete. I think not.
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