There are NO Poor People in America

This is a shocking reality reported in the April-May AARP magazine.  The median retirement nest egg among retired people in the United States is $50,000 reports the Federal Reserve.  Just to review median is not average.  In statistics the median is the mid-point separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample.  In other words half the retired population has less than is $50,000 in their retirement account.  This data goes along with the frequently reported fact that many people do not have enough money to pay a $400 unexpected expense tells me how poor most Americans are.  In the AARP article titled “Protecting Your Nest Egg” the author goes on to offer suggestions on how to save money.

Meanwhile Jeff Bezos’ wealth grew by $99 billion from 2014 to 2018.  Bezos is not the only super wealthy citizen of the United States. Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zukerberg, and Elon Musk have wealth in the billions.

This is not the first Guilded Age. The industrialists of the later 19^th century and early 20^th century Gilded Age lived high on the hog, but most of the working class lived below poverty level. As time went on, the income inequality between wealthy and poor became more and more glaring. Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie were all part of that early 1900s world of super wealthy and 12 hour starvation wage working class.

It was that glaring difference between the super wealthy and the rest of us that gave rise to communism. 

What is “middle class?”  Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich suggests that the middle class should be defined as households making between 50% below and 50% above the median. Pew Research Center, a non-political organization, on line posting says “About half of U.S. adults (52%) lived in middle-income households in 2018, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Roughly three-in-ten (29%) were in lower-income households and 19% were in upper-income households.”

My own opinion is that the idea of the words “middle class” are the wealthy’s definition of everyone who is isn’t part of the super wealthy.  No one is poor.  Peasant in an unacceptable word.  Too demeaning. We are all part of the upper middle class or the lower middle class.  So the janitors and house cleaning people are lower middle class.  In other words there are no “poor people” in America.

The 2021 federal poverty level (FPL) for a single person residing in the 48 contiguous states or Washington, D.C. is $12,880.  Today’s $7.25 an hour minimum wage is below poverty level and low pay for the so called middle class of today is the motivation that results in revolutions.