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I shouldn't do this, but I ran across a posting of a colleague of mine on the Midwest Voices blog, and I had to respond. Here's an excerpt of what he wrote and how I responded.

Larry Marsh, is a retired Economics professor who I run into at the Biostatistics journal club at the Kansas University Medical Center. He was selected as a panelist for the "Midwest Voices" columns on the editorial pages of the Kansas City Star in 2008 and continues to write for the blog for Midwest Voices. His blog entry on July 14, 2012 can be found at
--> http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/rich-getting-richer-versus-poor-getting-poorer/

His message, be frugal and don't lose track of where you are spending your money, is not a bad one, and it drew a mix of responses.

One person noted wryly

The funny thing about the wealthy; they tend to be a little smarter and work a little harder than the average person.

Another persoh shared a quote from the late Molly Ivins on rich people who think they are rich because of their virtue or hard work or something else that they did. Ms. Ivins has a different view on this.

They were born on third base and think they hit a triple.

John D. Rockefeller famously required each of his children to account for every penny of their allowances from the previous week. Any penny without a receipt or otherwise verified would be subtracted from the next week's allowance.

Well, what does that prove? So I wrote in response

So, Larry, where's the data to support compulsive record keeping leads to wealth and sloppy record keeping leads to ruin? I see an anecdote about John D. Rockefeller's kids, but I think that inheritance is a better explanation for why they got rich. As for John D. himself, maybe being rich changes you. Maybe after your first billion dollars, you become so paranoid that you start playing obsessive-compulsive documentation games with your kids.

The truth is complicated, of course, and there is very little data to support any perspective.

The problem with any speculation on why rich people are rich and poor people are poor is that data is very weak (even weak by Economic standards). There's no statistical equivalent of the "Trading Places" movie.

Later, I point out that emulating the practices of rich people may not be such a great idea.

If you want to get rich by emulating the practices of rich people, why not follow the Howard Hughes example and let your fingernails grow to ridiculous lengths? Why not follow the Paris Hilton example and,... Um, never mind.

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