male born in 1963 who dropped out of high school now earns
$5,000,000.00 per year and has a net worth in excess of $20,000,000.00

I need the exact answer

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 01 Oct 2004 07:42 PDT

In the entire United States, there are only 60,000 high school
drop-outs that earn more than $100,00 a year.  The odds of a wage
earner being in this rarified group are about 0.03%, or 3 in 10,000.

As income increases well beyond the $100,000 amount, the odds would
increase dramatically as well.  Off the top of my head, the
guesstimate in the comments, below, of 1 in a million is probably in
the right ballpark, though I would say 1 in ten million is probably
even closer to the mark.

I cannot provide you with "exact statistical odds" and, frankly, I
doubt that anyone could -- the available data on wealth just don't
permit that type of calculation.

However, I can certainly make a very reasonable estimate, based on the
data on educational level and age and gender that ARE available. 
These would allow some extrapolation to very high income levels such
as you have asked about.

Would you like me to provide such an estimate as an answer to your
question?  Let me know, and I'll be happy to assist you as best I can.


pafalafa-ga


P.S.  I have answered several of your questions in the past, as you can see here:

http://answers.google.com/answers/search?num=100&q=pafalafa+gapgapgap&qtype=all&btnG=Google+Search

---

Clarification of Question by gapgapgap-ga on 01 Oct 2004 10:29 PDT

Yes

gapgapgap-ga,


OK.  Here goes:


There are 186,876,000 people over the age of 25 in the workforce in
the United States.

I mentioned earlier that 60,000 of these earned $100,000 a year or
more despite having dropped out of high school.

Obviously, a much smaller number than 60,000 are worth $20 million or more.

And a smaller number still are worth $20 million AND are men AND were born in 1963.

But how small a number is that...?  


Here's a pretty good estimate, based on several available statistics:


There were (in 2003) 21,530,00 men in the workforce who were 35-44
years old (that is, 21.53 million men born between the years of 1959
and 1968).

Of these, 1,862,000 were high school dropouts, and

Of these, 14,000 of the dropouts earned $100,000 per year or more.  




The IRS has estimated that, among the wealthy people in the US, only
0.4% of millionaires have a worth of $20 million or more.

Let's assume that -- for those earning $100,000 a year or more (many
of whom are not yet millionaires) -- the percentage is a good bit
less; say 0.1%
(That is, only 1 out of a 1,000 people earning $100,000 or more are
worth $20 million or more).



So to recap:  There are 14,000 men in the age range 35-44 who dropeed
out of high school, and who earn $100,00 per year or more.  Only 0.1%
of this group -- 14 men -- would be expected to be worth $20 million
or more.

However, these 14 are strewn over a ten year time period (born between
1959 and 1968).  So...only one-tenth of the group would be expected to
have been born precisely in 1963.

That is, statistically speaking, there are only 1.4 men in the US who
were born in 1963, dropped out of high school, and are now worth $20
million or more!  Rounding off, we can say there's only one person in
the country who fits this description (someone you know, I take
it???).

In terms of the over-25 US workforce, then, the odds are 1.4 in 186.9
million -- or 1 in 133 million -- that someone meets your specific
criteria.

Q.E.D.

====================


You'll want to know, I'm sure, where these numbers come from.  I
pulled them out of three key sources (none of them parts of my
anatomy, by the way):


http://ferret.bls.census.gov/macro/032004/perinc/new03_000.htm
PINC-03. Educational Attainment--People 25 Years Old and Over, by
Total Money Earnings in 2003, Work Experience in 2003,
         Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex
Both Sexes, 25 Years and Over, All Races


This table provides an overview of the workforce subdivided by income
and education.



=====================




http://ferret.bls.census.gov/macro/032004/perinc/new03_000.htm
PINC-03. Educational Attainment--People 25 Years Old and Over, by
Total Money Earnings in 2003, Work Experience in 2003,
         Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex
Male, 35 to 44 Years, All Races



This table gives the more detailed breakout for the population of men aged 35-44.


===================

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/98pwart.pdf
Personal Wealth, 1998
Table 1.--Personal Wealth, 1998: Type of Property by Size of Net Worth

This table provides the distribution of wealth among the wealthy. 
Although the data are a bit dated, I dont have reason to suppose the
distribution has changed all that much in the past 5-6 years.


==================


Well, this has been fun, but I'll certainly understand if you have
questions, or want additional clarifications.  If so, just post a
follow-up comment, and I'll be happy to assist you as best I know how.

And please give my regards to Mr. One-In-A-Hundred-Thirty-Three-Million!


pafalafa-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by gapgapgap-ga on 01 Oct 2004 14:52 PDT

One last thing then the $ is yours...how about all high school drop
outs without regard for the year born?

---

Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 01 Oct 2004 15:36 PDT

Sure thing.  Here's some of the same text I provided earlier, except
the numbers have been reworked to include ALL high-earning high-school
dropouts without regard to age or year of birth or gender:


There are 60,000 people who dropped out of high school, and who earn
$100,000 per year or more.

Only 0.1% of this group -- 60 people -- would be expected to be worth
$20 million or more.

That is, statistically speaking, there are only 60 people in the US
who dropped out of high school, and are now worth $20 million or more!

In terms of the over-25 US workforce, then, the odds are 60 in 186.9
million -- or 1 in 3.1 million -- that someone meets your revised
criteria.

==========

I THINK this is what you were asking, but if I've missed the mark at
all, just let me know, and I'll be happy to re-work it until we get
exactly what you need.

pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 08 Oct 2004 11:25 PDT

gapgapgap-ga,

I noticed your note to Chris (zeroaffinity-ga) below.

Chris is not a Google Answers researcher, although he has provide here
some very useful information.  As such, there is no way you could pay
him for an answer, since there is no mechanism for getting fees to
non-researchers.

Researchers' names are hyperlinked in purple, as is the case with my
name, as it appears in the "Answered by: pafalafa-ga".

I'd be more than happy to reproduce the interesting methodology used
by zeroaffinity-ga, if you would like a new analysis done.  Just post
a follow-up question here at Google Answers.

You can leave the new question open to all researchers or, if you
prefer, you can direct it to my attention by writing "For pafalafa-ga"
in the subject line.

Cheers.

paf

1 in a million.

Can't be more precise because I don't know how many people were born in 1963.

Here's a different take on your question. I've broken it into two
parts, those people satisfying the income portion in Part I and those
satisfying the net worth portion in Part II. The product of both
represents the intersection, what you are almost interested in.

Part I
There is a .00902% chance of picking a male, aged 41, with a job, who
did not complete high school out of the population. [26559/US_POP]

Notes for Part I
-The age is assumed to be uniformly distributed over the 35-44 age bracket.
-Men with jobs is chosen because you used the language "...now earns
$5M..." and you have to have a job to earn.
-US population (US_POP)  is taken to be 294,440,200 from US Census site.
-This does not take into consideration the actual amount of income.
There is a note on that below.

Part II
First, let's put net worth in perspective. The man with the most net
worth in the country rings in at $48B; the 369th richest person has
$800M. Based on simple trending, you will hit the $20M net worth mark
around the 40,000th ranked person. Therefore, 0.01358% of the
population has $20M in the bank. [40000/US_POP]

Notes for Part II
-Trend line was created using "power" smoothing forecasted by 1000
units based on the first 367 data points.
-Trend line equation is given as Net Worth = 95.848(Rank)^-.8001

Putting It All Together
The likelihood of picking a male, aged 41, with a job, who did not
complete high school out of the population is .0000902 and the
likelihood of picking someone with a net worth of $20M or greater out
of the population is .0001358. The likelihood of picking someone out
of the population with both sets of characteristics is simply .0000902
x .0001358 = .000000012249. Slim chance indeed.

In other words, there is a 1 in 81,638,251 chance ... if high school
completion and net worth were not correlated. However, I would venture
to say that education and net worth are positively correlated through
at least the "some college" category and this would skew the chances
of finding your high school dropout towards the unfavorable side.

Last but not least, there is the $5M income parameter. I didn't even
bother to estimate this because assuming that income is normally
distributed, the chance of someone earning that kind of income is very
small.

But if you want a ballpark estimation of the effect of factoring this
kind of income against the more scientifically valid number above, I'd
say your chances are close to 1 in a billion.

Other Notes
Male income by education
http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/earnings/call1usmale.html
Net Worth
http://www.forbes.com (400 richest americans)

I hope this helps.

-Chris

Chris,

I will pay you another 200 if you do it the same way but use income
and dont allow for gender.