Saturday, April 12, 2014

More dubious inequality claims


Research from the NZ Council of Christian Social Services (or the journalist who wrote the article)  reported in the NZ Herald, relies on 2007 - 2010 data (see below)
The OECD report says household income in New Zealand has suffered a "large decline" since 2008 - NZ was put in the same basket for income as Mexico, Spain, Estonia and Greece.

But our own latest household income data shows rises since:  
 





  And the rises are across all income bands:

 



Still as the journalist was happy to rely on outdated OECD data I wonder why he didn't include this one?

Because between 2007 and 2010 inequality actually reduced and that doesn't fit with the story (which just highlights the inherent nonsense in inequality data. If the rich take a hit - surely what the envyists want - and the poorest stay on CPI/wage proofed state incomes, inequality reduces.)

3 comments:

thor42 said...

Very good post Lindsay, totally debunking that left-wing flunky.

Anonymous said...

Hi. I am the so-called 'left-wing flunky' journalist who wrote the Herald report to which you refer.

I am not a left-wing flunky journalist, and the details in my report are not 'dubious'.

The data I used came from this 2014 OECD report: http://www.oecd.org/els/societyataglance.htm

If it is outdated, it was presented by me as the latest data available in good faith. The OECD PDF was created on 27 February 2014.

Also, I'd much prefer you name me in future. Steve Hart is my name.

My websites are at www.SteveHart.co.nz and www.SteveHart.co

Cheers,

Steve

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Hi Steve,

Happy to use your hame in future.

At least now you know there is more recent data available. Apparently it will be updated in June this year to reflect further change between 2012 and 2013.

It's an excellent publication full of NZ and international data relating to incomes by age, ethnicity, household type, decile etc.