My intention with this post is to help us get real about our
actual wealth – as Quakers and Americans.
Due to the non-stop advertising messages coming our way almost all of us
want something we don’t have (even if not a material object, we want to fix
something or to go on a trip or get some comfort of some sort.) By the nature of class in America people are
generally surrounded by people of their own class and hear the wants and
desires of people with similar means to their own – those further encouraging
and normalizing our feelings about the things we want. Politicians talk endlessly about the middle
class and caring for the middle class.
Polls show that almost everyone thinks they are in the middle
class. Folks who are in fact poor think
they are middle class, and folks who are in the top 15% of income in America
think they are middle class. So most
of us, sadly, have no sense of reality about where we stand economically.
I am going to talk about the mean income in America (that is
the point at which half make more and half make less). The average is not a very useful statistic
because taking all the income and dividing it by the number of people – because
of the obscene wealth of the top 1% of America means that it skews high the
statistic of average in America. Further
confusing those who are at the median to thinking they are some how $15,000 “behind”
what is average in America.
Please stop for a minute – good thing it is tax season- and
review what your income last year was, and then guess where you think you fall:
bottom quarter, middle lower quarter, middle upper quarter, or upper quarter –
or the 1%. Occupy has made famous the phrase:
the 1%, but most of us don’t know how much you would have to make to be in that
club either. Ok have you decided where
you think you fall?
And the truth is: in 2016 the median income for a US worker
was 31,099. 1 (Almost exactly
the median for a female with a bachelor’s degree – note for women getting a bachelor’s
degree gets you in the middle – for men it gets you higher….19,000 higher.2) For a family it was 72,707.1 (that is for families of all races – for Black
and Hispanic families the mean is as much as 30,000 less a year!) The poverty
line (at which one qualifies for various forms of assistance) was 23,339 for a
family of 4 in 2016. 43.1 million people
lived at that level. So that is people
not working right? NO. If you earned the minimum wage set by Federal
law (some states like WA have higher) and you were the single breadwinner for a
family of 4 you would be below the poverty line. Let that sink in “our minimum wage” does not
keep a full time worker out of poverty. ¼
of Americans make less than $10 an hour putting them below the poverty
line. That’s right ¼ of Americans are below
the poverty line! If someone is serving
you….they are probably below the poverty line.3
Now if you think this news about the bottom fourth is bad –
hold on there is more. In 2012 the top
10% earned 50% of the nations total income – the highest ever recorded. But worse yet the top 1% earned 20% of the nations
income. 4 The word obscene
does come to mind here.
A picture of obscene in 2014.2 In fact in 2016 Forbes magazine listed the richest 25 families in America. (Families like the Walton’s, the Koch’s, the Cargill’s etc.) All with fortunes worth more than 1.2 billion. They collectively are worth 1.3 trillion.5 There is nothing I can imagine a human being doing that is worth that amount of money. To live with that amount of money while 25% of our country lives below poverty is a sin. (and I do not believe in the word sin.)
Census bureau data further shows the top 3% making over 400K
a year. Because I am writing this for a
primarily Quaker audience and also a strongly Washingtonian audience the home
of software millionaires, I need to further spell out this 2014 picture. I
suspect a lot of my audience when they guess at the beginning thought they were
somewhere between 50% and 75% when in fact the median as already mentioned is
31,099. The top 10% was making over
160K, the top 15% was making over 115K, and the top 25% was making over
100K which means that the top 25% are
making 3x or more per person than over 50% of our country makes individually.2
Now if all this was not mind boggling enough – for many of
you to realize that you are actually wealthy in America. Now we must confront
the far more jarring reality that the US is the world’s 1%! A 2012 story revealed that you needed just
32,000 (6 years ago) to be in the worlds 1%.
So in otherwords our median income puts us in the top 1% of the world.6
So just a minute ago I was feeling
right in the middle of the pack, and now I see that I am wealthy beyond
measure. The BBC reported on a complex calculation that
was done in 2012, it took the average wage of every country and multiplied it
by the number of workers in that country and then came up with the average,
they also adjusted the money for the exchange rate. They came up with a monthly wage of $1,480 or
just less than 18,000 a year.7 Earlier, I reported that the poverty line in
the US in 2016 was 23,000 for a family of 4.
So that’s right – even the poor in American, many of them have more
money than the average wage earner else where in the world! There are second hand products that can be
obtained here that are not available at all in many other countries.
How do we see what we have to share? Those who earn less than 100K give the most 3.6% of their income. Those over between 100k and 200K give the least 2.6% and those with the most, those over 200K give 3.1%.
How do we see what we have to share? Those who earn less than 100K give the most 3.6% of their income. Those over between 100k and 200K give the least 2.6% and those with the most, those over 200K give 3.1%.
Some of my regular readers are probably wondering why this heavily statistical and not (thus far) spiritual post? I want to invite you to grapple with these facts. I want to invite you into adopting an accurate picture of the money you have, the privilege you have and yes the wealth. For me it is information that allows me to see my own situation and the world around me entirely differently. For me there are profound moral implications to this information.
What does our faith say to this level of inequality? When I buy a cheap item in a store I don’t see the worker half way round the world who is paid less than minimum wage workers here to produce it? But if I could would I still feel ok, feel right about my inexpensive purchase? What choices would I make if I stay conscious each day of the fact that I am part of the world’s 1%?
