The Wealth Gap in America
Will you ever get rich?
It used to be an easy question to answer if you were headed to Wall Street.
Not so much today...
Yet another look at America's growing wealth gap doesn't instill confidence.
In fact, if you stop to actually read the article you may wind up looking in the mirror and asking yourself some difficult questions with regards to your goals, aspirations and ambitions.
Proceed... with caution.
Very disturbingly the poorest 90 % of Americans make an average of $31,244 a year. While the richest 1% make a hardly inspiring $1.1 million plus.
Two Very Disturbing Extrapolations
1) $31,244 is a very humble amount of money. It is a very humble amount of money if you are a single person in their 20's living in a studio apartment in a not-so-terrific urban neighborhood. Taking into account this must read Zero Hedge article, (assist to VTech Forever on that one) we can safely say that the majority of today's middle class...really is poor. For an average of ~$30K to apply to 90% of the population (i.e. ~270,000,000 people) there has to be an anchor of dead weight pulling down the honest hardworking sub-six figure crowd subsidizing them.
But who cares...we are the elite,right?
Let us examine...
2) $1.1 million dollars is a nice chunk of change. Let's be clear. A mil definitely does not buy you what it once did. But it's still a nice number...
However...
If the top %1 of Americans (i.e. 3,000,000) make a mil...how discrepant is that figure, really?
Considering how many F50-1000 bosses make a lot more, considering the billionaires and media megastars involved...how many people are actually making that much?
Isn't it highly likely that the "typical Wall Street stiff making $400K/year" is the caboose pulling down this party wagon?
Isn't it actually becoming a reality that in the top 1%, the monkeys and the chimps are the anchor babies making the disgusting discrepancy seem more paletteable in this sort of analysis?
Tell me, monkeys...
What do these figures tell you?
Then think about it and answer honestly...
Will you ever really be rich or will you be paying someone else's free lunch so the real %1 do not have to?






Comments
Whoa, whoa. 90% of the kids
Whoa, whoa. 90% of the kids on this site will be like Henry Kravis or Bill Gross. These kids were born to drive out operational efficiencies and beat(*cough* front-run*cough*) the markets.
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I blame the Mexicans for
I blame the Mexicans for taking our jobs.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
If making over $1mil a year
If making over $1mil a year is "hardly inspiring," then you need a reality check. And yeah, the average is thrown off but higher numbers, but there aren't 10,000 Warren Buffetts covering up for poor people in the top 1%. While there are people making $400k in that sample, for many of them, 400k isn't the most that they're going to earn in their careers. Even Henry Kravis made 400k at some point on his way to billions.
If you define the "rich" cutoff as making $20 million a year, you're almost definitely going to be disappointed. Even if the last person in that top 1% doesn't make an astonishing number, he's still out-earning 99% of the American population. If that seems pathetic to anyone, that person needs to wake the fuck up. Being one of 10,000 entry-level analysts each year doesn't mean that your definition of financial success should suddenly be Henry Kravis. I get the desire to not be skimming by at the 50th percentile, but the kind of mindset that deems the 99th percentile too low is just setting you up for disappointment. There's always someone richer.
One of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over.
It makes me a little sad
It makes me a little sad seeing these things.
Even though I don't make money for myself, I hope I am not ignorant enough to just hoard everything I have.
Padres have given me a pretty decent look on the world, seeing how my dad started with $200 in America and now 22 yearsish later he can afford to get both his kids German cars and do many philanthropic non-profit organizations, I hope I can do more with my life.
Rambled
It's what you put into it
Had the real estate prices
Had the real estate prices increased/progressed proportionally with non-wall street pay increase, the folks making 31k would have better life styles.
In my darker hours, I scan
In my darker hours, I scan the web looking for a place in the Islands where I can just disappear to. The thinking goes: Fuck this, I'll go be poor in paradise.
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Do you mean top 10% make 1.1
Do you mean top 10% make 1.1 mil? That would be 30 million people, but you keep saying the top 1% and 30,000,000 people. 10 would be easier to believe than 1, I imagine the top 3,000,000 in america make well above 1.1 mil on average.
"The only point in making money is so you can tell some big shot where to go.”
-Bogie
Isn't it kind of inevitable
Isn't it kind of inevitable that there will be a large pay gap? Wealth grows exponentially; the more you have, the faster it grows, so it is theoretically impossible for the general population to ever catch up to the folks at the top, and, the if you have slightly more, you will eventually (over generations) widely outstrip those slightly below you.
Just an idea; thoughts?
The Man wrote: Isn't it kind
Isn't it kind of inevitable that there will be a large pay gap? Wealth grows exponentially; the more you have, the faster it grows, so it is theoretically impossible for the general population to ever catch up to the folks at the top, and, the if you have slightly more, you will eventually (over generations) widely outstrip those slightly below you.
Just and idea; thoughts?
^ This is the logic driving the reaction that manifests itself in what we call the progressive tax.
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The 90/10 Rule works for
The 90/10 Rule works for almost everything. It's human nature. Survival of the fittest.
MSFhopeful wrote: Do you mean
Do you mean top 10% make 1.1 mil? That would be 30 million people, but you keep saying the top 1% and 30,000,000 people. 10 would be easier to believe than 1, I imagine the top 3,000,000 in america make well above 1.1 mil on average.
typo
fixed
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rbkchoi wrote: It makes me a
It makes me a little sad seeing these things.
Even though I don't make money for myself, I hope I am not ignorant enough to just hoard everything I have.
Padres have given me a pretty decent look on the world, seeing how my dad started with $200 in America and now 22 yearsish later he can afford to get both his kids German cars and do many philanthropic non-profit organizations, I hope I can do more with my life.
Rambled
Cool I'll take half of your earnings since you're feeling philanthropic :)
In all honesty I get what you're saying and I too plan to reach back to society one day. My concern of course is how will the $ be used, and is it productive. I think the best solution is sort of a meritocracy of philanthropy for example scholarship endowments to high potential students who have earned it.. Now am I being too risk adverse in my philanthropy? Maybe, but I feel like so much $ is lost through the system, taxed and just plain wasted
This is sort of a side topic
This is sort of a side topic I guess but
Who else here has siblings?
Do they have your earning potential?
If not, will you look out for them in the future? Be their superman?
I ask bc I have a sister in (sigh) art school and a brother who is likely to be earn an 'average' income
UFOinsider wrote: In my
In my darker hours, I scan the web looking for a place in the Islands where I can just disappear to. The thinking goes: Fuck this, I'll go be poor in paradise.
This kind of reminds me of this joke.
looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?
I don't think your average
I don't think your average Wall St stiff makes 400K, most associates break that. I'd put the number more around 800K which let's face it, is still very respectable.
I'd also say that most of the kids headed to the street know full well about this gap. Most don't go to Wall St to become billionaires, they go to make the aforementioned 800K, buy a 7 bedroom house in CT, buy the BMW 760li and the Ferrari for the weekend and send the kids to Phillips Exeter. Basically, most go in just wanting to join the very top of the upper middle class.
GOB wrote: This is sort of a
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