[quote=flyer]It still amazes me that only around 5% of the US population have a sustained net worth of over a million or more–which is really the “bottom
line”–regardless of age–or how you got there.[/quote]
I’m not at all surprised, unfortunately. Most people, even in the upper-middle class, are living paycheck to paycheck. IMO, this is because previous generations have had family or traditional pensions to rely on, so they didn’t have to save up so much money for their latter years…and their offspring are just carrying on their family traditions. Also, people have been led to believe that the future will always be brighter…that incomes and asset prices always rise, and that they will be the beneficiaries of these trends. Even other Piggs are hoping for this, as noted above.
And you have to remember that most people today are not nearly lucky enough to belong to unions which have benefited so many people — like your family and mine — over the decades . Even union members today are seeing much lower overall benefits than people who were retiring 10+ years ago. And both of us have benefited from having family resources in addition to union benefits. Many others have not had this opportunity. We have to acknowledge the role of luck and timing in our good fortunes; many/most others are not in the same boat. For that, we need to be more compassionate and we need to work hard every day to improve their outcomes, as well. That’s what I’m always fighting for.
Admittedly, I’m a long-term deflationist, and I think that we are in for a rude awakening. We need to reverse the trends that have brought us to this point (reforming taxes and trade agreements would be a good start). Keeping interest rates so low is not helping at all. We need people to spend more because their wages are rising, not because debt is expanding.
