Your real chances of getting rich in America

[undergroundpanther]

The ugly truth.. EVERY American should know.

Congratulations to those roughly 40 folks per year who make it against all odds in America to get truly wealthy without the benefit of inheritance or marrying into riches!

http://www.jmooneyham.com/your-true-chances-of-getting-rich-reference.html

[CrispyQ]

1. Interesting reading, although a sad commentary on the current status

of the American dream.

"Turns out inheritance of wealth is by far your best bet. Flip side? If you have no such prospects your chances of ever attaining riches dims substantially.

"It appears that 69% of everyone qualifying as rich today basically inherited their wealth."



No wonder they want to implement the Paris Hilton tax relief plan.

[scipian]

10. Not always

Granted, it's not likely a person will all of a sudden make 10 million dollars. But what do you expect? A family making 50k to get millions? To get "rich" by yourself you'd need to be a really high professional. Both partners being prominent doctors, lawyers, actors, businesspeople, whatever. So a person gets rich and passes it down to their children. Their children inherit the money.

But quite a lot of people get moderately rich. The "American" dream isn't to be a millionaire. It's to be well-off, which is very possible if you get educated and get a good job. 100k,200k is a region that professionals often get. All you need is a good job. My Dad is an engineer and he's in the 100k region. He's not a genius but he went to college, got a bachelor's, and worked hard.

EDIT: And the really rich often got so because of hard-working smart ancestors. The Rockerfellers had a very enterprising man who started the wealth.

[brmdp3123]

2. There are 2 rather basic flaws in this argument.

First, the author states "I explain how and why I conclude that a household or family with an annual income at least ten times that of the average-- with no one in the family actually working to make it-- qualifies as rich in America today." and then concludes that people only get rich by inheritance, marriage, or crime, not by working for it. Well, gee, if you take 'working for it' out of the definition...

Second, even if the wealth of today's rich is inherited, SOMEBODY in the family earned it, or else they couldn't have inherited i!

[undergroundpanther]

3. In the earlier days

of the south and such land was stolen from the tribes there.There were land giveaways...the slaves imported to America built the capital too..than as industry started up you had robber barons that used the capital from thier previous situations as it passed from generation to generation.It is very hard to risk it to get rich while paying rent...The wealthy few families made smaller fortunes that were the basis of the super wealthy fortunes today.

[Dark]

4. Later on he says that the 26 % actually get it by "other means"

No clarification.

[hfojvt]

5. I do not like that definition of "rich" either

What he describes is not rich, it is super-rich. The top 20% should be considered rich. Also it cannot just depend on income. Assets and employment status matter too, and so do expenses. My father and I make the same amount of money, but he owns alot more, and I work and he does not. To me, that makes him rich, and me just lower middle class, but I do not feel that I am doing that bad. I certainly am not poor, although I am not nearly as rich as I would be if I had gotten my decent job ten or even five years ago instead of last year.

[sandnsea]

8. $88,000 isn't rich

That's the fallacy that the writer in the OP is pointing out, people don't earn as much as what most Americans think. You would probably be able to get rich with a household income of $157,000; but only the top 5% earn that much.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/h01ar.html

[Sammy Pepys]

6. I'll definitely have to work to get "rich"

So that's what I'm doing.

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

7. At least a third of those people

are first round draft picks in the NBA Draft! :rofl:

[anewdeal]

9. unfortunately for your arguement

the acronym "NBA" shows that well over 40 folks a year go from poor to super rich.