Are You in the Top 1% ?

On average, the group in the top 1% has income 25 times that of everyone else, but the monthly income required to be in that category varies state by state, as the article demonstrates.

"What exactly does it mean to be among the top one percent of U.S. earners?

According to a 2013 Economic Policy Institute report, "to be in the top one percent nationally, a family needs an income of $389,436." However, the threshold varies significantly among states. In Connecticut, for example, you need an annual income of $659,979 to be in the one percent. In New Mexico, it's $231,276.

Keep in mind that these numbers just represent the threshold — the average income of the top one percent nationwide is $1.15 million.


People in the rest of the nation, on the other hand, earn an average of $45,567 a year. That means that, in 2013, "the top one percent of families earned 25.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent," the EPI reports."

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/12/how-...e-in-the-top-1-percent-in-every-us-state.html

IMO this income disparity explains the jarring difference between the "1 percenters" and the rest of us regarding the direction the country should take. They are living high on the hog, so 'What's the problem with the rest of us?' seems to be their attitude. Additionally, their higher income insulates them from the eveyday experiences of the rest of us.

 

1) Your average income of $45,567 a year you cite for "the rest of us" is still distorted greatly by the top 10% income. Much more telling is the median income, which was $30,240 in 2015. That makes the factor between the top 1% and the real rest of us 38.3.

2) Much more telling, though, is wealth. The median of the top 1% has $11.9 million, the median of the whole US is $81,500. That's a factor of 148.

So, what's the problem with the rest of us? We don't have the financial assets to easily live on interest income. But, to be a creditor, living on interest, you need debtors. And that's the problem when wealth becomes too concentrated. The creditors eventually run out of debtors, and the whole thing collapses. The latter reason is exactly why the recovery since 2008 was so slow, and why Trump's supply side debt binge will be nothing than a flash in the pan. The real underlying issue, too much household debt, has not been resolved since 2008.

 

Why stop at American income statistics? If your concern is disparity shouldn't you be sending your paycheck to a third world country?

 

The old meme of "unless you send your paycheck to the poor, you are not allowed to complain about inequality". I counter with: Unless you go live in to no-mans land in Alaska, where big bad government can't bother and tax you, you can't complain about lack of liberty.

Back on topic: Care to talk about increasing inequality causing reduced economic growth?

 

The point is valid. Hand waving did not refute it. Our poor in America have a much higher standard of living than much of the rest of the modern world.

Inequality is not the problem. Envy is the problem.

Oddly enough, the fruits of that envy are not as the left in this country describe them.

Want to know why young black men are shooting other young black men in the inner city? It's the result of the competition for the success they see at the top. They aren't in violent conflict with Bill Gates. They in violent conflict with their peers in a struggle to become him.

There's no culture that values shooting for the middle. Everyone aims for the top.

 

If there is envy, which might be, it's obviously caused by inequality.

You're just quoting a BS idea about being poor in the US. It's not true.

Much of the poor in the US are food insecure, have no way of obtaining wealth, no access to education, and have no safe/regular housing.

Here are a couple of facts:

A 2013 UNICEF report ranked the U.S. as having the second highest relative child poverty rates in the developed world. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...pare-on-child-poverty-the-u-s-is-ranked-34th/

According to a 2016 study by the Urban Institute, teenagers in low income communities are often forced to join gangs, save school lunches, sell drugs or exchange sexual favors because they cannot afford food. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/12/teens-america-hunger-food-poverty

Poverty is a real problem in the US. Increasing taxes would be a huge boon on our economy. Wealthy people save/hoard money. Poor-lower middle class people have to spend it.

 

You understand what the word relative means, right? They don't mean relative to the poorest nations. They mean relative to the richest in their own nation. Given this fact they are still richer relative to other nation's poor.

For example if the U.S. Black population was a country it would be the 15th richest nation on the planet. Why then are they plagued with such high crime and poverty statistics? It's relative, right?

 

$500,000 is only 10x of $50,000.

$10,000,000,000 is 20,000x of $500,000

If $50k is on the zero yard line, $500k is on the 10 yard line, and $10,000,000,000 is on the 200,000 yard line, or 111 miles away.

Your jealousy has you unable to figure out what rich is

 

No; I'm a nationalist. My own country first.

 

People that have higher incomes usually also already have significant savings as well.

I would like to point out that this is a discussion on economics and your character assassination is inappropriate.

 

Damn, you make a good case for not wanting to be a 1%er

 

In the Glorious West, each of us is born (assuming sound mind and body) with the potential and opportunity to be as rich or as poor as we choose. Poverty is a choice, just as much as wealth is. We choose how hard we want to work ... and that's what the choice (and the statistical difference) is really about. A far greater number of us don't want to work that hard, than those who do.

And your strange notion that money insulates is rather ill-informed. We have plenty (of folding stuff), and still live like paupers.

 

Public housing, welfare, free education, free medical care. Anyone can make it work, if they're determined. The problem with your poor is that they don't want to make it work. Whatever it is they're doing wrong (and it's liable to be multiple things ... cigarettes, shopping, alcohol, gambling, laziness, demanding an iPhone, a car, etc etc), it's clearly more important to them than making sure their kids get ahead.

How do you think many of us become 'wealthy'? By NOT SPENDING. It's a simple choice to make. Want more money? Start hoarding.

 

Why don't we have the financial interests to live on interest?

Lots of reasons, but the biggest reason is that we are taxed twice. Once when our parents earn the money, and again when we inherit what our parents worked for.

inheritance taxes kill what should be a simple transfer of money from parent to siblings.

 

The gap has gotten too wide, especially for a democracy. It's a structural issue. Our financial sector is partly to blame, but some common business practices are also a problem.

 

With respect, that's absolute rubbish. Stop looking outside your window for blame, and start working to preserve your own capital. If you can't work more hours or for more money, then drastically reduce your expenditure. Do whatever it takes. That's the only difference between you and the rich, you know. They're prepared to do whatever it takes.

We spent years living on less than a single welfare income, while working two full time jobs. We lived in a one bedroom house in a 'rough' area, with our first two kids. We found our furniture on roadsides, and all our clothes at charity stores. We grew our own vegetables. We never took holidays, went to restaurants, or had even half-way decent cars. No fancy phones, no air conditioning, no clothes dryer, no microwave, no vacuum cleaner, no tv.

 

A lot of relieving symptoms of being poor being talked about. No talk about the causes or getting people out of poverty.

The 3 greatest causes of being poor are all self inflicted. Until that changes, I think we should stop demonizing those that avoid those 3 things and actually learn to support themselves.

 

Excellent points.
Some people were so desperate they took a chance and voted for a reality show host.
There has been income redistribution in the US - and it has been deliberate and government directed, and it has been FROM the bottom and TO the top.
Our government has been bought and paid for - and Citizen's United is a major impediment to it ever changing.
The few good politicians there may be out there can do no good if they never get elected because their campaigns get outspent.
Both parties are guilty, but the GOP is more guilty. Take the inheritance tax, for example - for 2017, you can leave up to $5.49 MILLION tax free for an individual, nearly $11 million for a couple, yet the GOP campaigns against this "death tax". Those who would leave over $5.5 million (or $11 million as a couple) can afford to cough up some money, I assure you.

 

Poverty, in the Glorious West, is ALWAYS a choice.

 

And I thought this thread was about 1 %er OMG's like the Hells Angels or the lowest of the low the Mongos MC.

 

Non-sequitur.

In 1924, the amount of US currency in circulation hovered somewhere around 4.3 billion. The richest in the world were just about to attain billionaire status.

The poor, like today, were represented by zero.

Today, the amount of US currency in circulation is somewhere around 5 TRILLION. We have not yet had our first trillionaire worldwide, and appear to be 5-15 years away from getting there.

Yet, the poor still can be represented as zero.

Is the difference between zero and one billion in 1924 mathematically proportional to the difference between zero and one TRILLION in 2017?

There's your wealth gap. It's math, and it's propagated by the inflationary construct inflicted upon Americans by fiat currency, and the FED. By forcing an expansion of currency in this country, we are putting the poor at an immediate disadvantage.

If you want to fix your contrived perceptions of the harm of 'wealth inequality', end the FED.

Leave the rest of us alone, and keep your mitts out of my pocket.

 

Poverty is a CHOICE?

What kind of air do you breathe on your planet...

 

It's absolutely a choice, or a collection of choices for everyone but the physically or mentally disabled.

 

So if you're born to parents who are poor...and don't give you any help or encouragement...you have as much chance of being wealthy as someone born to wealthy parents who pay for an Ivy League college?

 

There is a lot of middle ground between poor and wealthy.