| WHERE
DOES MY INCOME RANK WITH OTHER AMERICANS?
Usatoday.com/money/economy/fed/2003/-01-22-household study_x.htm WE MISPERCEIVE HOW MUCH WE EARN! Did you ever wonder how you rank with others when it comes to annual income? It’s not that you are nosy, it just means that the feelings you have are rather natural and common. Pew Research discovered that 19% of the society thinks that they are in the top 1% in terms of salary. In other words, about 20% of the country doesn’t realize that they make a lot less than the very rich. Most sociology introductory textbooks indicate that if you are poor
you have a tendency to blur everyone above you, so that the upper middle
class and the rich merge. And so it goes. HOW MUCH DO I EARN COMPARED TO OTHERS? (This chart is an adaptation from USA TODAY.) PERCENTILE OF INCOME ANNUAL SALARY Bottom 20% $10, 300 The above comes from the Federal Reserve Board and it is based on a statistical family of 3 people. The median income for all families is $39,900. Whites make $46,000 and Hispanics earn $25,000 and roughly that annual income applies to Blacks. HOW DO I COMPARE TO THE VERY RICH TOP 1% Most of us make a lot less than those at the very top. We must indicate that income is usually annual income and wealth is what you have when you liquidate everything that you “own.” Generally at the top 1%, annual money comes from dividends (money made from productive property) rather than income which comes from working for others. That is called a salary. Most Americans earn salaries and on average have about $10,000 to $12,000 in the stock market. The top 1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 95%.
From 1983 onward the bottom 40% lost 75% of their wealth. In other
words, money was flushed up from the bottom. 20% of all American children
live in poverty. The top 1 %
1. Less collective bargaining. 2. Globalization and outsourcing/temping. 3. Declining minimum wage. 4. The stock market increases. 5. Tax cuts for the rich. 6. Reduced taxes on corporations. 7. Declining subsidies for the poor. 8. Increased subsidies for the very rich. 9. Aggressive marketing of credit with high interest rates. 10. Tight money supply. WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE? There appears to be that which is already in place. The bifurcation of the middle class will draw folks into one America without and one America with financial security. Further, globalization can have the effect of making integrated countries into integrated economies and if one major player falls, it can bring down others with them. Additionally banks on the micro level generally lend more marginal loans to consumers. If the economy stiffs, these consumers are the first to go bankrupt taking down the system with them. Great inequality hits a tipping point where there is continuous excess capacity and disequilibria that causes social upheavals. This social problem is met with police force at the one extreme or income redistribution at the other. Survivors have multiple skills, marriage without children or one child, mobility, and constant training to remain current with market. They must also maintain fairly good or manageable health and be able to save. The futurist projections of the 50’s where people drove small helicopters, worked 3 day weeks, and had troubled deciding what to do with their leisure is probably not going to happen. The future is hard to predict because trend lining is subject to major changers caused by little changes in the beginning. Things could blossom. We are now in the process of economic transformation from an industrial society to information/biotechnical society. During massive change, families and personal livelihoods change be hit hard by change itself. The wish is a good future for you and loved ones. It will take time
to know if that will happen. |
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