"Americans are horribly misinformed about who has money." (No Shit)

[TalkingDog]

http://www.good.is/post/americans-are-horribly-misinformed-about-who-has-money/

What’s interesting here is the extent to which the public vastly overestimates the prosperity of lower-income Americans. The public thinks the 4th quintile has more money than the median quintile actually has. And the public thinks the 5th quintile has vastly more wealth than it really has.

You can easily see how this could have a giant distorting effect on our politics. Poor Americans are simply much, much, much needier than people realize and this is naturally going to lead to an undue slighting of their interests.

[butterfly77]

1. The poor..

have too many tv's..

[gratuitous]

2. The major source of information on income is from multi-millionaires

The teevee doesn't routinely feature people who make less than six figures a year. It's mostly millionaires talking to other millionaires, all of whom like to pretend with each other that they know how tough poverty is.

[snappyturtle]

3. If that isn't the truth...I agree. There is a total disconnet between the media

and the average Joe. imho

[KT2000]

14. Excellent, excellent point

:thumbsup:

[SheilaT]

15. TV actually does routinely feature people

who are supposedly working or middle class. Also movies. But they invariably show them living well above what their actual incomes would provide.

I recall years ago reading something about the show "Sex and the City" (which I myself never watched) and the reviewer pointing out that the ladies in the show lived in a manner befitting women who made significantly more than their supposed jobs would have in reality allowed them to. One pair of shoes, for instance, was close to what one week's pay might have been.

And THAT'S the problem with the media portrayal of life. Once in a great while they'll get it right, or close to right. Matthew Broderick's NYC apartment at the very end of the movie is a a minuscule apartment that he's paying some outrageous amount of money for. Shabby and crappy, it's exactly what he'd actually live in, under the circumstances.

Several years ago a man I know who lives in NYC and is a book editor, recounted being at a preview of the movie "Sliver", in which the main character, played by Sharon Stone, rents an apartment in a fancy building. When asked her profession, and she says, "I'm an editor", the entire audience, according to my friend, burst into laughter, because they knew perfectly well an editor could not possibly afford such an apartment.

It goes on and on. No one is ever shown dealing with the day-to-day realities of balancing the checkbook, finding the money to cover an unexpected car repair, or flying halfway across the country to attend a funeral. In truth, even those who make $300,000 per year but live in NYC have to make financial decisions and don't just have unlimited money to spend on whatever they want. And the person in Omaha who lost his job six months ago definitely isn't doing so well. But all of the images on TV and in movies never show any of that.

[canetoad]

16. Great response

If I wasn't so stoned I'd write a lengthy reply so all you get is

+1,000 :)

[lumberjack_jeff]

25. Funny how few realize this. n/t

[NHDemProg]

4. I know who DOESN'T

have any money--me, that's who. I read an article in one of the papers here how WalMart didn't have ANY stores here in NH 15 years ago, and now they're the state's largest employer. Whoopee!!!! Minimum wage crap work for everybody!

[TalkingDog]

5. Pretty much nailed it

And welcome to DU!

[Jamastiene]

6. Ain't that the truth?

We have the same situation in my area. Once Wal Mart moves in, they become your major employer for the area.

[LuvNewcastle]

7. What is this?

The poor people have more than the middle class, didn't you know? I was in the checkout line the other day and I saw a woman wearing gold and diamonds buying steaks and lobster and she paid for it with food stamps! When she went outside, I saw her get into a brand-new Cadillac, which she probably paid for with her big fat welfare check. The poor have ALL the money!

[hay rick]

9. Been that way since St. Ronnie. nt

[Sal Minella]

23. Amazing how fast all those people caught on to buying

an orange at the grocery store with a twenty-dollar food stamp and then taking the change (U.S. currency) to the Liquor Store to buy booze. (This was one of Saint Ronnie's favorite cautionary stories.)

Apparently only the people on food stamps were actually aware that change from food stamps was given in food stamps, not U.S. cash.

[Foo Fighter]

18. And I bet she has

about 9 or 10 kids too because everyone knows that's where the REAL money is at for people on welfare.

If those damn poor people wouldn't hog up all my taxpayer money I'd be RICH!

[guruoo]

26. My mom used to tell me the same story...

Right after she told me the one about how I have it so good, since 'when she was my age', she had to
walk five miles both ways in knee deep snow to get to school. :rofl:

[PSPS]

8. The "$250K/year is middle class" canard doesn't help either.

These are the facts from the US Census Bureau and the IRS:

Median household income = $46K/year
Average (mean) household income = $63K/year

98% of households in the US bring in less that $250K/year

95% of households in the US bring in less that $166K/year

80% of households in the US bring in less that $92K/year

60% of households in the US bring in less that $58K/year

[krispos42]

10. A picture is worth a thousand words

[Hannah Bell]

12. by those posts, the best years for the majority were 1942 - 1982, when the top 1%

had about 6% of the wealth.

[krispos42]

17. If Reaganomics had never been...

:-(

[Foo Fighter]

19. Ah, I see where the problem is with those charts.

The bottom 99% still have some actual income. The top 1% would be so much better off if the line for the bottom 99% had stayed at the 1917 level. Unfortunately, that didn't happen but luckily Congress is more than willing to work with them to correct that.

[hfojvt]

11. it's mostly old married people who have the wealth

of married households 65 years and older 72.6% of them have over $100,000 in wealth, and 20.6% of them have over $500,000 in wealth. This compares to 40% and 8.5% of the general population. On the other side, householders who are under 35, only 1.1% of them have over $500,000 in wealth and 48.9% of them have less than $5,000 in wealth, including 33% with negative wealth. That makes sense, because most under 35 haven't had time to accumulate much wealth. But even single guys over 65 - 18.5% of them have less than $5,000 in wealth, including 9% with negative wealth. Compared to married couples where the percentages are 6.4% and 3.6%.

This is from a 2002 census survey of wealth.

Of 110,052,000 households

16.9% - zero or negative
9.3% - 1-$5,000 _____ bottom 25%
4.8% - 5- $10,000
7.6% - 10 - $25,000 ______ bottom 40%
8.5% - 25 - $50,000
12.9% - 50 - $100,000 ______ bottom 60%
20.3% - 100 - $250,000 ______ bottom 80%
11.1% - 250 - $500,000
8.5% - over $500,000

from Bloomberg news and wiki is the following

7.8 million with net worth over $1,000,000 (which is almost 7%)
980,000 with net worth over $5,000,000
403 with over $1,000,000,000

Oddly enough, I seem to be in the top 40% for wealth, even though I have typically been in the middle of the bottom 20% for income.

[Hannah Bell]

13. not much difference in estimates between bush & kerry voters, either.

not much difference in their guesses (which underestimate the amount of inequality) -- but also not much difference in what they consider "ideal" -- which is a much more equal distribution than presently exists.

just another way in which media misrepresents the degree of difference between the rank & file "left" & "right".

bush voters think the top 20% should have 35% of income (on average).

kerry voters average 30%.

wow.

the reality is the top 20% take 85% of income & have for some time.

[Cardcaptor Roosevelt]

20. Australia

I feel sorry for you Americans...

If only Obama would take action and actually live to his
promises of withdrawing from the ME.

[ck4829]

21. K&R

[GeorgeGist]

22. They're even more horribly uninformed about what causes ...

the distorted distribution of money. It's not hard work, it's profits.

[WingDinger]

24. Youall are just jealous, this is class warfare.

:nopity: :sarcasm:

[TalkingDog]

27. And the rich are winning.

[WingDinger]

28. War ain't over yet.

[Initech]

29. And yet another symptom of the Fox News virus emerges.