As you can see by this startling Mother Jones infographic, all the things that conspiracy theorists and Rastas have been saying over the years about the Illuminati are true: there’s an elite ruling class running the world. They’re called rich people. Not $200k a year “rich,” but rich-rich. In the U.S., the top .01% controls the majority of the wealth and luckily for them, dictators don’t get people as riled up over here.
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The Super-Rich are Super-Rich
By Bucky Turco |
7 Responses to “The Super-Rich are Super-Rich”
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This is not exactly news. This has been the way for… what, 30 years now? Did you just realize this? The growing inequity has been at the base of our political debate since the Reagan years.
And whaddayaknow, people making $200Gs are in (the higher end of) the top tenth percentile of earners. Guess that makes them… what would you call it…. "rich" perhaps?
Yeah Kirk, I just realized, that's why I CLEARLY wrote: "all the things that conspiracy theorists and Rastas have been saying over the years about the Illuminati are true." Just today it occurred to me that rich people have all the money (Sometimes I wonder if you commenters even read the text). And sure they're in the higher percentile, but that doesn't take cost of living into effect, so $200k in NYC, like a freaking broken record, IS not rich!
Yeah it is. At least by most people's definition of "rich" it is. Maybe to you, "rich" = ridin' dirty in Rolls Royces and shit, but not to normal people. To me, "don't have to worry about where your kids will find money for college" = rich. Regardless the cost of living, if you're in the top tenth percentile, you rich, bee-yatch!
Are you from New York? Bucky is not claiming that a $200K income is poor in NYC, but again, it is certainly NOT rich. First of all, with a $200K income, you are looking at $125-150K take home, and in New York, for a family, around a 2000-3000 rent/mortgage per month, MINIMUM, and this number could easily be doubled. And keep in mind, these numbers are per family, so with two working parents, childcare gets factored in, transportation costs which have SKYROCKETED, plus private schools, since the public variety are almost a non-option depending on where you live. So when all is said and done, with a $200K income, and facing a min of $50K/year college, yeah, the parents are definitely concerned about carefully planning for their children's education.
No one is crying poverty here, but it is intellectually dishonest to look at a $200K income without factoring in such an exorbitant cost of living.
Hell, people around me in PA commute 2 hrs to NYC, just so they can afford the $1000-2000 mortgage on their decent houses. The above examples I use just cover APARTMENTS.
You made good points, but I don't like that you assumed family means "two working parents." I bet the creator of that poster meant to say "households," weather it is an individual or a married couple or just a mom and her kid. Two working parents would raise the income level of a household/family, so I bet their is a higher prevalence of marriage amongst the higher earning households.. So your assertion doesn't really support your theory. Particularly when you highlight transportations costs. Households that make 200k+ are precisely the households that could give a fuck that the subway went up to 100+. There's more I'd like to address about your statement, but fuck it.
I make $100,000+ (with the help of my working wife) and I would not say we feel we happy with the amount we have. I guess I could say we are comfortable but we still have to save up to do anything expensive like take a trip, replace the fence on our home, etc. I am not even into collecting 'things' like a boat and a second vehicle and whatnot but have you seen the price of 'things?' It takes a lot of money to travel and eat at nice restaurants. $100K will not do it. I guess it also depends on how many children you have (one in our case), but it made me feel supremely greedy how unsatisfied I am with what I have.
"According to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll, only 31% of Americans believe they could live comfortably on something less than $50,000 a year, though the median family income is now about $52,000. But 62% say they would need $50,000 or more to achieve a comfortable lifestyle.
In a 1987 USA Today poll, just 8% of Americans believed they would need $100,000 or more to live comfortably, while 56% thought they could achieve that on something less than $50,000."
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Article…