Ted Barlow and Rob Lyman have been reminding folks of the importance of looking at race/wealth disparities, as well as the better-known income disparities. People are often surprised at just how huge the wealth gap is compared to the income gap.
Wanna see what I mean? In the following table, “net worth” refers to is the product of total assets minus total liabilities (I’ll provide a more detailed definition in the comments). As you can see, white households have about twice the income of non-white households, but eight times the wealth of black families and twenty-five times the wealth of Hispanic families
| Whites | Blacks | b/w Ratio | Hispanics | h/w ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median Income (thousands) |
37 | 20 | 0.54 | 23 | 0.62 |
| Average Income (thousands) |
57.8 | 28.4 | 0.49 | 31.1 | 0.54 |
| Median Net Worth (thousands) |
81.7 | 10 | 0.12 | 3 | 0.04 |
| Average Net Worth (thousands) |
320.9 | 58.3 | 0.18 | 79.2 | 0.25 |
| Homeownership rate |
71.8% | 46.3% | 0.67 | 44.2% | 0.64 |
| % of households with zero or negative net worth |
14.8% | 27.4% | 2.09 | 36.2% | 2.56 |
It’s also worth noticing that there are even big wealth gaps within the same income class; a poor (measured by income) white household is likely to have much more wealth than a poor black household. There has been a lot of talk about the emergence of a black middle class in the last few decades; important as that is, we should bear in mind that the black middle class is incredibly tiny if we measure class by wealth instead of income.
| Income class |
percent of whites |
percent of blacks |
white average net worth |
black average net worth |
ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $15,000 |
17.6% | 40.9% | $63,836 | $16,152 | 0.25 |
| $15,000- $24,999 |
15.2% | 16.9% | $108,696 | $31,913 | 0.29 |
| $25,000- $49,999 |
29.5% | 24.8% | $136,455 | $62,635 | 0.46 |
| $50,000- $74,999 |
19.3% | 11.1% | $24,5647 | $96,645 | 0.39 |
| $75,000 and over |
18.4% | 6.2% | $1,119,335 | $320,223 | 0.29 |
Importantly, wealth more than income is what determines our ability to help our kids out – for instance, by helping them buy a first home. Wealth – or lack of wealth – tends to be passed down from generation to generation.
(There’s also a follow-up post, with data on wealth by race and age.).
Major Trump donors who complained of immigrant ‘invasion’ used Mexican workers illegally https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/20/uline-mexican-workers-trump