What It Takes to Be Rich—Where You Live

Choice

Having kids is a choice (per Roe v. Wade) - so no more tax breaks for having children.

It Cuts Both Ways of DC @ Oct 16, 2008 10:13:12 AM

Polly In MD

If you look closer at the table, you will notice that those averages are for the Top 20% and Top 5% of households. No where does it suggest that these are the average earnings for Americans. These fairy tale numbers seem very accurate.

Andy in NYC of NY @ Oct 16, 2008 08:48:08 AM

kids vs no kids...

So many of the DINK's (dual income no kids) end up with one income after the kids....this compounds the fact that kids ADD to the expenses, but take away from the income....I think there needs to be more factored into tax breaks for the families with kids. It's too arbitrary to just look at income....

Jo Co Mom of KS @ Oct 16, 2008 08:38:53 AM

Your salary does not increase when you have kids

It is definitely possible to be considered rich in the "couple no kids" situation.

However, how many people get a raise when they have a kid? NO ONE!

So basically you are living on the once "I am rich" income and then have kids and become "not rich" even though both parents are still working and bring in $100,000+.

The presidential candidates need to get a handle of this.

Keisha of OH @ Oct 16, 2008 07:39:38 AM

Somewhere over the rainbow

Get a grip! The average family has an income of anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000. The sad fact is that most of these families have 2 incomes and still cannot make ends meet. Now figure in the elderly who are on retirement and Social Security, which by the way never increases enough to cover the rise in cost of living, and you will get a better picture of the family incomes in this country. I'm not sure where they come up with some of these fairy-tale numbers, but the reality of the situation is frightening. I raised 7 children on less than enough and feel lucky to only have 1 child still at home while my income is now up to 25,000. Do I feel poor? Sometimes, but not as poor as someone who thinks those average incomes are right!!

Polly of MD @ Oct 16, 2008 07:16:22 AM

A learning from the current financial crisis

Apparently, in quite a few cases, it also takes a willingness to utilize legalized methods of theft to become "rich".

eibren of PA @ Oct 16, 2008 03:23:36 AM

Useless information

The average, or statistical mean, is a useless piece of information in this context. There are obviously a very small number of people with extremely high incomes that are weighting the average to be much higher than the median income.

Just look at the job market. There is no way that the top 20% of jobs pay even close to this much. Thus, the income numbers must also reflect a sizeable investment income.

A further distortion occurs from the computation of the average household as being 2.54, which may vary greatly for each MSA.

I thus postulate that if the top 1% were excluded from these average income numbers, they would be reduced by at least 30%.

The data suggests that for the top 20% column, that 1 in 5 households earn this much income, is simply untrue in view of the consumption and salary levels in corporations.

Gaurav Goel of TX @ Oct 15, 2008 00:13:39 AM