----- Forwarded message from Paul W. Jeffries -----
I have been thinking about levels of measurement too much lately.
...an increase in income from say 18,000 to
19,000 is not the same as an increase in 1,000,000 to 1,001,000.
----- End of forwarded message from Paul W. Jeffries -----
They ARE the same in that if the rich person got the increase they
could give it to the poor person and then the poor person would have a
$1000 increase. You are troubled that it might not FEEL the same, but
the measurement scale does not include such subjective factors. If
you want a certain % increase to be the same everywhere on the scale
you must exclude $0 and take logs of positive incomes. If you take
logs to base ten, then an increase of 1 will correspond to a ten fold
(900%) increase in income anywhere on the scale.
_
| | Robert W. Hayden
| | Work: Department of Mathematics
/ | Plymouth State College MSC#29
| | Plymouth, New Hampshire 03264 USA
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