From here: American Middle-class Net Worth (June, 2021) Definition of Net Worth: The total wealth of an individual, company, or household, accounting for of all financial assets and liabilities.
THE AMERICAN DREAM - LIVE LONGER AND DIE WEALTHY Only if you did not inherit the wealth and "made it" on your own. There is no doubt a great deal of self-satisfaction engendered if so. Of course, since Wealth IS inherited one can be very young and wealthy and behave nonetheless like "I did this all-by-myself!" America is full of distortions of this nature and will remain so until we get a grip on Wealth. And that means changing mentalities. For the moment - the American Dream amongst the Replicants was to engender exactly what has happened and to do so they lowered drastically upper-income taxation. As if to say, "To hell with the others! Life's all about US-US-US ... ! PS: Given the preference of self-interest (to not employ the word "selfishness") it is unlikely that Americans will change their notions about wealth. Still Pew Research has come up with a finding that surprises me: Reducing economic-inequality comes in a pitiful next-to-last ... !
Yes, obviously, since you can't compare net worth of someone who has been accumulating it for 40 years vs someone who just graduated form college with $300 000 student debt.
Can I ask you what point you were trying to make in this thread? It seems you are just displaying statistics. I will point out that your statistics do not prove that more education will create more wealth in the economy and society. It could just be that those with more educational credentials are being given the better jobs. (The so-called screening hypothesis)
JACK 'N JILL AMERICA Which was never my intent anyway. I keep harping about how the present wealth is wrongly distributed because the Replicants lowered upper-income taxation (see tax-rate history graphic here) - which started with Ronnie RayGun in the 1980s. And if Jack-'n-Jill America cannot understand that rip-off and want to do something about it, then they deserve to get screwed ...
But you do realize that, even if it were under a totally flat tax, if you earn twice as much, you pay twice as much tax. Or were you talking about all the loopholes that extremely wealthy people have, where they pay a lower capital gains tax rate rather than the income tax rate?
Just looking at a handful of middle class families I know .. net worth is in the millions. I realise I'm in a different country and our economies are different, but First World nations are not so dissimilar, surely?
from OP link Age Bracket Median Net Worth Mean Net Worth Younger than 35 $10,200 $75,640 35-44 $68,400 $217,300 45-54 $110,600 $316,400 55-64 $168,500 $415,400 65-69 $223,300 $431,600 70-74 $211,700 $481,500 75+ $200,700 $418,500
UNCLE SAM'S INEQUITABLE INCOME TAXATION A fair tax system goes from Very Little at the bottom to Very Much at the top wherever Economic Fairness is a paramount feature of a democracy. (Presuming that tax-laws are applied efficiently in a country.) America has become a economically unfair-democracy and that fact is DIRECTLY ATTRIBUTABLE to successive Replicant-administrations (since Ronnie RayGun) that lowered upper-income tax-rates! As shown admirably well here below - which I post for the upteenth time: The above unfairness has effectively altered NEGATIVELY the lifestyles of a considerable number of Americans particularly at the lower end of annual personal income. The difference between upper and lower income taxation is 30%! Which is ridiculously low*! What the Right has obtained in America is very-low Upper-Income Taxation but also the unfair-right to earn immense amounts of much lower-taxed Income ... ! *The difference between upper-and-lower taxation shown above was once before 70%!
@LafayetteBis Another important point is that the trickle down economic benefits that were meant to be the direct result of this kind of taxation system never happened. They've had two or three decades to prove the experiment and it has failed. In fact the gap between wealthy and poor has slightly increased. And it gets even worse. With globalization (that the wealthy secretly love) they were able to push most of the labor offshore and make even more money with reduced labor costs (at the expense of American labor). This notion that the wealthy will voluntarily look after the poor is laughable. The notion that America is in any way heading towards being 'poor socialist country' is also absolutely laughable, given the enormous US economy and GDP per capita. It's an illusion that has been selectively hand fed to the ignorant, to pit American against American and against immigrant and minorities, while the wealthy sit back and watch while they are making even more money. And an even further irony is that even with a modest increase to the upper wealth taxation bracket (that would make a huge difference for infrastructure and education and health spending), the wealthy would still be extremely wealthy. It's not like these guys are gonna starve tomorrow. There is plenty of wealth to go around. The wealthy can still be extremely comfortable while the poor don't need to work three jobs just to survive.
I would probably disagree with some of his execution, and yes everybody has a personal responsibility as well. But I respect the gist of what he is saying. It's a rigged, artificial system. In any kind of naturally ecosystem, the wealthy would simply have their throats slit. This is the best time in the entire human history to be an upper middle class and higher citizen. You can make money by pressing little buttons on your screen.
which is the way it should be, a flat tax, the rich pay the same tax per dollar as the middle class - all income included, investment, ect.... one should not pay less taxes cause they earned more dollars, the earning of more dollars is the reward
I am thinking more like this a flat tax where everyone pays the same % for every dollar they earn over the poverty line is the only fair system all income needs to be treated as income, no caps, everyone pays the same % across the board for every dollar earned over the poverty line the poverty line can be raised or lowered as needed, I would also exempt the first maybe 10k a year from investment income
DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS But with globalization, they got what they secretly wanted. A Rolls for hubby, a Bentley for mummy, and Porches for al the kids! And "who-the-hell cares if they weren't made in Detroit! . I figure it has to get back up to the 70%-level. And a solid vote (Dem presidency, and Dem control of both parts of Congress) it could be done. Just as the Replicants brought taxation levels down, we could bring them up stepwise. But, the real problem is that Americans like to "read about politics" but not so much "get involved". Any country that could Almost Elect a Donald Dork into the White House, has to get its collective-head examined. (He lost the popular-vote TWICE but won in the Electoral College*.) After WW2, when the western-European countries were looking to rebuild their electoral-system, it was not the American Presidential-election election that seemed a suitable mechanism. In only France is the election for the Head of state done separately. In the other nations, it is the leader of the parliamentary majority-party that assumes that role ... *Please do explain how that is justifiably honest!
No, the notion that people should be taxed according to how much they produce is absurd and evil. There is absolutely nothing fair about it. Please explain why people should be taxed according to how much they contribute to the community by their labor rather than how much they take from the community by their privileges. Thought not.
I think you need to start separate threads for your discussion of the Henry George philosophy and land value tax, and stop being so confrontational about this issue in other threads. You really keep derailing the subject and try to turn every economics discussion into a discussion about that.
Anyone with $300,000 in student loan debt obviously does not listen to Dave Ramsey. Btw... WHY is college so expensive now... considering the uneducated idiots that are graduating ?? .
Well, maybe they do now. I think it is absolutely criminal how some of these educational institutions are taking advantage of young people who have barely just become adults. It's like predatory lending. The government guarantees the loan, so these institutions have nothing to lose, and then there's no way for these young people to escape their debt obligations, even through bankruptcy. I normally don't really like Ramsey, but I was happy to hear that recently he has begun trying to shine light on this issue. Well, sorry, this is probably another topic.
Right on topic because how one handles money is directly related to one's net worth. Off and on I have been listening to Dave Ramsey for quite awhile. I agree with most of what he says... except I still routinely use my rewards credit card that pays me to use it. Most of what he teaches is common sense my parents taught me... like living below your means. Even though I usually know how he is going to respond, I like listening to the callers to his program. And once in a while I learn something new. Sometimes he devotes his program to listeners who have become what he calls "every day millionaires." .
He basically just says common sense. I still can't stand listening to him for some reason. Maybe he comes off as a little abrasive and harsh, or maybe his extreme perspective on personal financial responsibility is a little uncomfortable for me.
When comparing rates. No you don't. $100 earner paying $1 tax pays the same rate as $200 earner paying $2 tax. Base it on % and not total $. Both pay a 1% rate
