Thursday 6 August 2015

Cor Blimey, who'd thunk it

Adam Smith Blog, here

I quote (a quote):

All people born in rich countries thus receive a location premium or a location rent; all those born in poor countries get a location penalty. [In a world of low international migration] most of one’s lifetime income will be determined at birth.

Well, that kills off all the anti LVT arguments stone dead, one would have thought.  What is true between countries must also be true within countries.

3 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

I have always said that most of what you (can) earn is down to luck and timing of birth. Had either of us been born a century earlier, we would be scrabbling around in the dirt or toiling for pennies in a factory. Had these current Premier League players been born fifty years earlier, they would have been lucky to earn £100,000 a year instead of £10 million a year nowadays.

The point is that as between people born in wealthy countries, there is still a huge discrepancy, a lot of which is down to timing i,e, age 50 and older (should) have paid off the mortgage by now; 35 and under and you are right royally screwed.

Age 50 and older in London you are a "property millionaire" (or at least half way); 50 and older elsewhere and maybe your house is worth a couple of hundred thousand.

Lola said...

MW. Precisely. The article confirms all that which is common bloody sense anyway - just by looking out of the window.

Ralph Musgrave said...

I really must object to the poor standard of English on this blog. "Who'd thunk it" should be "Who'd er thunk it".