From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Wed Nov 23 2005 - 11:20:20 EST
> and if you take the 20% of households earning $70,000+ a year (about > 60 million people), they account for 38.8% of new personal consumption > expenditure, or about 1.8 trillion of final consumption demand. > Consumer units with income of $70,000+, 2003 = 23.6 million > Percentage of $70,000+ income units in total consumer units = 20% > Total consumer expenditure 2003, consumer units with income of > $70,000 and over = $1.8 trillion > Percentage share of $70,000+ income units in total consumer > expenditure = 38.8% Hi Jurriaan: This wouldn't tell you the _class_ dimension, though, since some percentage of those households which receive $70,000/ yr. or over are _working-class_. When one remembers that working-class households typically have 2 income earners, this would not be so uncommon (e.g. if a household had 2 workers who earned $35,000/ yr. then it would be included in this statistic). When one looks at the composition of demand by class, it is no longer so easy to say that "luxury good" demand is limited to the capitalist class. Clearly some percentage of workers who are relatively highly paid have a demand for (at least some) "luxuries" But, it gets more mirky when one remembers that what is considered to be a "luxury" vs. a "necessity" changes over time. In any event, thanks for raising some interesting issues for discussion. In solidarity, Jerry
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