Comments on: Are You Rich Or Poor?

By: spokesNspin » Blog Archive » Proved My Point & Class Politics

spokesNspin » Blog Archive » Proved My Point & Class Politics — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:59:21 +0000

[...] few weeks ago I wrote about income distribution and how people with money just don’t get it when it comes to what is middle class [...]

By: Red

Red — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:00:32 +0000

Jay: Several authors have written in recent years about how the once populist areas of the country have now gone to the gospel of prosperity movement. Income distribution isn’t an issue and God wants you to be rich.

Sansauto: I believe you are a student. At least I got that idea once from your blog. If you go to the Census site and look at the tables they break out the data by various demographics.

There are, as we would assume, more people in the lower quintiles in households headed by people under 35 than those headed by people in the 35-65 group.

Of course your son believes he is rich. He gets to ride a bike every day.

By: sansauto

sansauto — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:29:45 +0000

According to the chart there, me and my family of five our currently in the bottom quintile. My oldest son (5 years) recently asked if we could go to Lego Land. I told him, “no, we don’t have the money, we’re too poor to go on a vacation to California and spend $50 per person to go to an amusement park.”

He responded (and this was one of my proudest moments as a father), “Dad, we’re not poor, we have a wonderful family, we’re rich”. I may not make a lot of money, but I would still consider myself the richest man in the world.

By: RBK

RBK — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:20:20 +0000

This was very helpful and educational. Look forward to more of these articles so do continue in such vein, at least till the elections are over as you are actually doing a public service by sharing this kind of information. Post-elections we can all can wheel around town with you

Ok I am teasing a bit but truly, this is great stuff and you do a good job of simplifying it for folks like me whose eyes tend to glaze over the otherwise boring tables and elasticity curves…

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:56:09 +0000

Thanks for the link, a lot of really interesting info there. I just wish I knew what to make of it all. I agree that the distribution of wealth is largely overlooked or misunderstood by most of us. It’s also really hard to step outside of your own financial situation and view things objectively. You bring up a really interesting point that “middle class” used to connote more than just income. There are so many factors that contribute to how well-off we are–the numbers on our tax forms are probably less important than a lot of other things.

I also totally agree about the tax credit thing. A large percentage of the country doesn’t pay any federal income tax anyway–are they talking a refundable credit like the earned income credit? And then you have the problem of how many people are actually going to spend that money on insurance anyway. I suspect that many people will feel that other expenses are more pressing, or just feel that they are invincible and would rather buy a motorcycle or something instead. And it’s not just their problem if they do–it’s everyone else that has to pick up the tab for their emergency room visits.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:02:36 +0000

It is very interesting that our government is run by the elite, but they consider themselves poor compared to the people that lobby them or some of their other friends. Biden is touted as the poorest member of the Senate, and he makes what, like $250,000 for his combined annual household income. Forget race, sex and partisanship, wealth is by far the great divisor of our nation and yet seems to be the least considered issue by the electorate. Maybe the struggle of the classes seems too much like a Marxist concept for post cold-war Americans to stomach.