SUNDAY'S DOONESBURY: Income Inequality In America

[Hissyspit]

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[nilram]

2. trust... the invisible hand!

[undeterred]

17. ...here ya go

[nilram]

19. heheh

[hfojvt]

3. What exactly is the median wealth?

Extrapolating from the 2002 census of wealth, I get that it is about $70,000. So if you have less than $70,000 in assets you are in the bottom 50%. That means that I am not in that group. Even though I am in the bottom quintile. Now for an average, I think the Forbes 400 has a total net worth of $1.5 trillion. At least I remember $1.2 from years past and I think it has grown some. Maybe not with last week's stock free fall.

But that would make the average a pathetic $10,000 per person. But if you figure the average household size for this group is 3, then the average rises to a more respectable $30,000 per household.

One thing about the non-wealthy - quite often they are young.

The 2002 census shows that of 24.4 million households headed by people under 35, a whopping 48.9% of them have less than $5,000 in net worth. That's 41.4% of all those with net worth under $5,000. In contrast, only 13.6% of householders headed by a person over 65 had less than $5,000 in wealth.

Meaning that many of the currently non-wealthy do not stay that way. On the other side of it, only 1.1% of householders under age 35 had over $250,000 in wealth whereas 12.9% of householders over 65 had that much. Serious lack of wealth is often a temporary condition caused by the fact that one is just starting their career and wealth accumulating.

[Sanity Claws]

4. lots of change since 2002

Some of that wealth to which you are referring has been totally wiped out when the real estate bubble burst. A lot of property has negative value (mortgage greater than the property.)

Also, people are graduating from college and graduate schools with a heavy debt load. These are 20 year loans and with the poor economy, many have no chance of paying back the loans.

These debts result in a huge transfer of wealth from the lower classes to the filthy rich.

Finally, I have some doubts about your figures for 2002. Could you please provide table and other identifying information on which you base your post?

[hfojvt]

9. I did mention 2002 census of wealth

I copied the relevant tables into a file in Outlook Express. Hence I quote them without providing a link. Links change and if I copied a link, it might or might not be valid in two years.

Then again, the study, released in 2008, is also getting old, and thus less relevant to current conditions.

For myself, my wealth has seemingly not changed much since 2002. That's about when I bought this house for $35,000. It had been assessed at $50,000 but has recently dropped to $45,000. So, I sorta 'lost' $5,000, which kinda sucks, except for the fact that I didn't really lose it except on paper.

Much of the 'lost wealth' of the real estate bubble if from places like Florida and Nevada and California and some metro areas where people bought houses for $200,000 and their 'value' rose to $400,000 but has now plunged to $170,000, but according to the Jeremiads, such a person has 'lost' $230,000 in wealth.

My own niece is upside down on her mortgage in Minnesota though as well, but she only recently bought that house (and shouldn't have, but hey, she didn't want advice from her old uncle, so 'neener, neener' (In any case both she and her new husband make big bucks working for a big corporation, so as long as they keep their jobs, stay married, and stay healthy, they will be fine.)) Anyway, she didn't have a lot of equity in the house.

Anyway, my data comes from somewhere in this report http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p70-115.pdf Although that table at the front is intersting too. Only 24.1% of households had IRA accounts in 2002 and half of those (including mine) were worth less than $20,000. 62.8% of households had savings accounts, but half of those were worth less than $4,000. Only 34.4% of households had checking accounts, which is astounding to me. I had thought that almost everybody has a checking account.

[Pooka Fey]

5. Remember folks, it's all in the "Framing" K&R

"If each group has the same amount, what exactly is the problem?" :rofl:

[Tennessee Gal]

6. The growing wealth gap is perfectly fine with the right wing.

[Motown_Johnny]

7. the "invisible hand" has been giving us the finger for decades now

[Hissyspit]

8. Kick nt

[Hydra]

10. You can't make this stuff up

Truth is stranger than fiction.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. so worth a kick and a rec.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. "It's all good, dawg. Trust the invisible hand"

HAHAHA!!! GOLDEN!!!

[amborin]

13. kr

[panzerfaust]

14. Priceless

And this is OK because ... ???

The recent riots in the UK are widely thought to be in part - even by Tony Blair (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/20/englands-riots-tony-blair) - due to the wealth and opportunity disparities in those Sceptered Isles.

We need more of this:
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité


And less of this:

[Zax2me]

15. I'd trade my income/net worth for Mr. Trudeau's.

Then I'd like to see the cartoons that would follow.

[Bozita]

16. class warfare ...

[DirkGently]

18. The invisible hand is picking your pocket

[ProgressoDem]

20. That makes no sense in a very delicious way. n/t

[BiggJawn]

21. The Invisible Hand is fisting you

Of COURSE you don't feel anything, it's an INVISIBLE hand...