This discussion of what it means to be “rich” in America in this Washington Post article bears some consideration. Certainly, two income households could find themselves bringing in more than $200,000 a year, especially if both partners are professionals. This article brings up some interesting questions: Is a person rich if s/he makes more than $97,000 a year? After all, the median HOUSEHOLD income in 2006 was $48,200. Would your answer change if that person lived in San Francisco,CA or Temple, TX? Would your answer change if that person owned a yacht, owned a second home, was paying for a prolonged hospital stay, or was putting kids through college? How do we make these distinctions between rich, upper middle class, and middle class in America? Where does our median household ($48,200/yr) fall? And, how do we make sure our tax policy encourages all earners to save for their futures?
-Lonny Stern | Communications and Outreach Director
Great post, Lonny! Some interesting pieces in the media on this topic. — LA Times and elsewhere. It’s particularly relevant to the SCHIP debate where regional differences in income and health care costs come into play. $60K may sound like a great income in some areas, but in others, it’s not enough to pay for health insurance for a family of four. Perhaps Americans should be thinking about equality of opportunity, access and community needs rather than the simplistic rich/poor divide.
Lonny,
This is an interesting question. We should probably take the next step and ask “does it matter?” The American founding documents mention life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life, liberty, and the opportunity to pursue happiness can be eroded even for high-income couples if they don’t have health insurance to deal with catastrophic health situations; if they cannot find child care because child care providers can’t afford to live nearby; if they live in a dangerous or polluted world. Also, people judge their wealth by those whom they live near or compare themselves to — if people watch “lifestyles of the rich and famous”, they may view themselves as poor even if they are vastly more prosperous than their parents or than people in other countries. The purpose of creating an Opportunity Economy is to give everyone the same opportunity to pursue wealth, in the belief that this is the best way to create a society where people can pursue all of their dreams — including the option of not pursuing wealth but instead pursuing more leisure, more spirituality, whatever.
The term, “rich”, might also be construed in other measureables besides money. I think if you have strong family relationships and you are financially comfortable you are much richer than a two income family with hardly any communication or interaction. This country has gotten so divisive because of unscrupulous manipulators (primarily rich ones) that there almost seems to be an agenda to foment unrest over class envy and culture differences. This might also apply to one of the other current questions, “What is the American Dream, Anyway? As a middle aged male American who believes our Christian values and our willingness to defend them have made this country rich and why people flock to it today. I might be considered out of touch in today’s environment but I see value in the multi-cultural population that is mixed and Americanized. In my community over the years I have seen Black, Hispanic, Asian and Middle Eastern along with Christian, Jews and Muslim adapt to common American hopes and dreams with no desire to turn the country into the new Europe but just improve our society. I think that is very possible and is being undermined for political purposes and I don’t think I have to identify the culprits. They are there for all to see if you open your eyes.