What is Merit?

[Beliavsky]

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@ucbalumnus

According to <a href=“http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/incom...H10AR_2011.xls[/url]”>http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/incom...H10AR_2011.xls&lt;/a&gt; , the median income in 2011 for households headed by someone age 45-54 was $63,861. Note that this is down from 1999’s peak of $76,806 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

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<p>Looking at households with 17-year-olds, the average (not median) income is considerably higher at $87K. If this average includes households with one adult, the average income of two-adult households with 17-year-old kids is even higher.
[Hold the Gold Watch. Kid in College.
By MICHAEL WINERIP
New York Times
February 1, 2013](<a href=“Older Parents With Children in College Are Taking On More Debt and More Work. - The New York Times”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/booming/older-parentswith-children-in-college-are-taking-on-more-debt-and-more-work.html&lt;/a&gt;)

First, the median age of mothers with a 17-year-old has risen, to 45 in 2011 from 42 in 1980. Fathers, too, are having children later, at a median 48 compared with 46.</p>

<p>While college costs go up, up, up, household income has not: parents of 17-year-olds earned on average $87,000, down from $88,000 in 1980, according to census data calculated in 2010 dollars.

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