Top 5% = 36% of Both Income and MLB Home Runs
Using the sortable Major League Baseball historical database, there were 1,226 active professional baseball players in the major leagues in 2008, and there were 4,877 total home runs for the season. The top 5% of the MLB players ranked by the number of home runs hit in 2008 (63 players with between 22 and 48 home runs for the season), hit 1,779 home runs, or 36.5% of the total.
Interestingly, in 2006 (most recent year) the IRS reported that the top 5% of American taxpayers earned 36.6% of the total taxable income that year.
In other words, home runs are distributed just about as unequally as income - the top 5% earn a disproportionate share of income, about 36%; and the top 5% of baseball players hit a disproportionate amount of home runs, about 36%.
20 Comments:
So should we take home runs away from the good hitters and give it to the bad ones? We should really spread those home runs around, it would definitely level the playing field for those fantasy baseball leagues.
I believe in small ball, anyway. Still, you gotta love a baseball analogy.
Almost half of the players (556) are pitchers.
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player_stats.jsp?c_id=mlb§ion1=12&statSet1=1&sortByStat=POS&statType=1&timeFrame=null&timeSubFrame=2008&baseballScope=mlb&prevPage1=1&readBoxes=true&teamPosCode=All&HS=true
I wish you would put some thought into your posts, and I thank god you aren't a nuclear power plant operator.
BxCapricorn:
Good point. Some players can't hit home runs no matter what they do. Just like in real life.
"I wish you would put some thought into your posts, and I thank god you aren't a nuclear power plant operator"...
I wish BxCapricorn would take his/her silly whining somewhere else...
Then whining apparently is your forte BxCapricorn since I read and wonder what this weird word CULONES in your O'Reilly whine is all about...
Is it like the attempt to blame Obama for the terrorist attack in Arkansas because Obama claims we are muslim nation?
Bizzare, convulted logic?
You bet!
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"Subtract the pitchers and recalculate"...
Why?
BxCapricorn: Thanks for pointing that out, I'll make some adjustments and re-calcualte when I have time.
One advantage of a blog is that it allows for experimental posts on topics that might not be completely thought out and finalized (like perhaps this one). I always read and appreciate the feedback, which is frequently instantaneous, swift, severe and ruthless. The comments really keep me on my toes, and I appreciate that. Thanks.
"BxCapricorn: Thanks for pointing that out, I'll make some adjustments and re-calcualte when I have time"...
Again I ask the question, 'why?'
Can you say Babe Ruth?
So what if the pitchers don't get a chance to hit or aren't as good at hitting as everyone else? Maybe we should make a new rule that lets pitcher hit from a tee or make it so people can't throw as fast against them. That sounds familiar eh?
I agree with "1". Why should we remove players who don't hit home runs when we don't remove people who don't look for jobs?
Or.
Why would we remove players with only a few at bats when we don't remove people who only work a few hours?
Teaching kids about taxes.
Wrong comparison! The home run outcome should be compared to the amount of WEALTH CREATED by the top 5% of income earners not the amount of their earnings. The amount of wealth created by the top 5% of earners would be a very interesting piece of data. Joe Murray
re: Teaching Kids about Taxes...
Excellent link anon @ 1336 hrs...
Thanks for posting it!
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Robert, maybe they do not bat... But baked in the tax statistics are quite a few halves of "couples filing jointly" that earn nothing, and yet are in the statistics - because of deductions and what not. And I suspect filtering those out will be close to impossible.
BxCapricorn would shoot down any analogy/simile posted because he is obviously ignorant tot he concept of one.
Benjamin Franklin:
"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."
BxCapricorn's response:
"Fish actually begin to smell much earlier and also they live in the ocean, you are stupid"
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Robert, it seems to me that the file that Dr. Perry has linked (with the 36.6% found in cell D160) has descriptive statistics based on income tax returns, not on households - hardly surprising, since it is compiled by the IRS.
I think it's key in the analogy proposed to decide whether we draw a parallel between:
1) All baseball players and all people who file returns, or
2) All batting players and all people who file returns.
I agree with you that 2) is the marginally cleaner comparison. However, I posit that, since we are working with returns, joint returns do dilute, since one return may be filed by two income earners. As long as we are clear that one "taxpayer" (filer) can mean two earners, while one player (or batting player) cannot actually be two players, we can play with the fun analogy.
Best regards!
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