Please distribute to interested individuals / Public domain, free to distribute and reproduce / References for statistics cited in this commentary are available in Falling Behind: Why Wealth Gaps Are Preventing You and Half of America from Getting Ahead, a draft of which is available online at https://www.DrDavidDemers.com/falling-behind.html
An Open Letter to Wealthy Americans (the Top 10%)
Did You Know the Bottom 90% Are Becoming Class Conscious?
Dear rich people: Total words: 908
Are you having a good time?
Of course you are, and I’m happy for you.
There’s nothing like $3.6 million in assets [the average wealth of the top 10 percent] to brush aside the inconveniences of life, like having to go into debt to pay for food, daycare and medical bills.
And those incredible vacations you take.
Wish I could afford Disney World [which now costs $7,000 for a family of four].
As you probably guessed, I am a member of the bottom 90 percent. There are 225 million of us and about 28 million of you. We have an average of $70,000 in assets, which includes equity in our homes and money in our bank, stock, bond, and retirement accounts. Of course, many of us don’t own a home or have retirement accounts, especially those of us in the bottom 50 percent. Our jobs typically don’t pay enough to cover these luxuries.
Nevertheless, we’re proud of what little we have, because we worked hard for it. And we aren’t prone to complaining, even though 45,000 of us die every year because we can’t afford health care. As I’m sure you know, America is the only industrialized country in the world that fails to provide health care for all of its citizens.
That’s barbaric but not the problem I am writing about here. I want to talk about how you are getting wealthier at much faster rate than the rest of us.
Since 1976, your inflation-adjusted incomes have grown an average of 5 percent per year, and the 25,000 richest among you are enjoying an annualized rate of 14 percent. In contrast, we 90 percenters have seen our incomes only grow about 1 percent per year.
In terms of relative income and assets, we are falling behind you — big time.
You currently own two-thirds of the nation’s wealth, but in 10 to 15 years, you’ll own close to three-fourths. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent of us will only have 2 percent of nation’s wealth.
Personally, I’m happy for you.
I know how much money means to you.
It’s wonderful to live in communities where the homeless are not begging for money at every corner. And some of you need money to tamp down that insecurity you suffer from when you don’t have money.
Of course, you and I know that only part of your growing wealth stems from your financial acumen. Massive tax cuts and reduced inheritance taxes over the past four decades have played a much bigger role. In fact, inheritance accounts for 50 percent of all wealth. Science has debunked the myth that most rich people are self-made millionaires. Some analysts even argue that America’s economic system is simply an advanced state of feudalism, especially because America offers less upward mobility than almost every industrialized country in the world.
Sorry to be so blunt.
If I have hurt your feelings, I’m truly sorry, though I don’t feel guilty, because I know you have plenty of money to hire a therapist.
But before you buy your next yacht or embark on another European vacation, you might want to know that public opinion is turning against you. Polls show that two-thirds of us are not happy about your burgeoning wealth and want you to pay more taxes. We are, in other words, becoming class conscious. That concept was introduced in Sociology 101, a course you refused to take in college because it interfered with your business classes on how to make a lot of money.
For the record, I’m not a big fan of Karl Marx’s theory of communism. He was wrong about a lot of stuff.
But when it came to understanding the impact of wealth gaps on people, he was a genius. He argued that if disparities in wealth widened substantially, the proletariat (the laborers or what I call the bottom 90%) would see how they were being exploited by the bourgeoisie (the capitalists or what I call the top 10%) and then take up arms.
Remember the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia? That did not end well for the Czar and his family.
Fidel Castro and Cuba? He killed nearly 11,000 people.
Marx’s writings have inspired 23 other revolutions that have brought down regimes with big wealth gaps.
I realize that none of these revolutions have occurred in capitalistic countries. That’s largely because of the growth of the middle class. But, as I pointed out here, the middle and working classes are losing financial ground.
To be clear, I’m not saying a revolution is on the horizon. That requires financial, organizational and leadership resources.
But to thwart that possibility, I recommend you choose one of two options.
The first is for you to pay a little more in taxes and use that money to reduce taxes on the working and middle classes and pay off the national debt, which stems from the tax cuts that have benefited you. You have plenty of disposable income to make America more American. Heck, how many Disney World vacations can you take? You also have the power to change the tax system, because you know that you and your corporations and foundations exert a great deal of control over politicians in Washington and your states.
The second option — if you don’t have the will to reduce taxes on the lower classes — is to stick a sign in your front yard that says, “I am not a member of the top 10 percent.”
That should keep you and your wealth safe.
Your 90-Percenter Friend,
David Demers
Demers is author of Falling Behind: How Wealth Gaps Are Preventing You and Half of America from Getting Ahead, a book that will be published in 2025. He worked as a newspaper reporter and college professor before retiring to spend more time writing. He can be reached at [email protected] or 623-363-4668 or DrDavidDemers.com
An Open Letter to Wealthy Americans (the Top 10%)
Did You Know the Bottom 90% Are Becoming Class Conscious?
Dear rich people: Total words: 908
Are you having a good time?
Of course you are, and I’m happy for you.
There’s nothing like $3.6 million in assets [the average wealth of the top 10 percent] to brush aside the inconveniences of life, like having to go into debt to pay for food, daycare and medical bills.
And those incredible vacations you take.
Wish I could afford Disney World [which now costs $7,000 for a family of four].
As you probably guessed, I am a member of the bottom 90 percent. There are 225 million of us and about 28 million of you. We have an average of $70,000 in assets, which includes equity in our homes and money in our bank, stock, bond, and retirement accounts. Of course, many of us don’t own a home or have retirement accounts, especially those of us in the bottom 50 percent. Our jobs typically don’t pay enough to cover these luxuries.
Nevertheless, we’re proud of what little we have, because we worked hard for it. And we aren’t prone to complaining, even though 45,000 of us die every year because we can’t afford health care. As I’m sure you know, America is the only industrialized country in the world that fails to provide health care for all of its citizens.
That’s barbaric but not the problem I am writing about here. I want to talk about how you are getting wealthier at much faster rate than the rest of us.
Since 1976, your inflation-adjusted incomes have grown an average of 5 percent per year, and the 25,000 richest among you are enjoying an annualized rate of 14 percent. In contrast, we 90 percenters have seen our incomes only grow about 1 percent per year.
In terms of relative income and assets, we are falling behind you — big time.
You currently own two-thirds of the nation’s wealth, but in 10 to 15 years, you’ll own close to three-fourths. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent of us will only have 2 percent of nation’s wealth.
Personally, I’m happy for you.
I know how much money means to you.
It’s wonderful to live in communities where the homeless are not begging for money at every corner. And some of you need money to tamp down that insecurity you suffer from when you don’t have money.
Of course, you and I know that only part of your growing wealth stems from your financial acumen. Massive tax cuts and reduced inheritance taxes over the past four decades have played a much bigger role. In fact, inheritance accounts for 50 percent of all wealth. Science has debunked the myth that most rich people are self-made millionaires. Some analysts even argue that America’s economic system is simply an advanced state of feudalism, especially because America offers less upward mobility than almost every industrialized country in the world.
Sorry to be so blunt.
If I have hurt your feelings, I’m truly sorry, though I don’t feel guilty, because I know you have plenty of money to hire a therapist.
But before you buy your next yacht or embark on another European vacation, you might want to know that public opinion is turning against you. Polls show that two-thirds of us are not happy about your burgeoning wealth and want you to pay more taxes. We are, in other words, becoming class conscious. That concept was introduced in Sociology 101, a course you refused to take in college because it interfered with your business classes on how to make a lot of money.
For the record, I’m not a big fan of Karl Marx’s theory of communism. He was wrong about a lot of stuff.
But when it came to understanding the impact of wealth gaps on people, he was a genius. He argued that if disparities in wealth widened substantially, the proletariat (the laborers or what I call the bottom 90%) would see how they were being exploited by the bourgeoisie (the capitalists or what I call the top 10%) and then take up arms.
Remember the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia? That did not end well for the Czar and his family.
Fidel Castro and Cuba? He killed nearly 11,000 people.
Marx’s writings have inspired 23 other revolutions that have brought down regimes with big wealth gaps.
I realize that none of these revolutions have occurred in capitalistic countries. That’s largely because of the growth of the middle class. But, as I pointed out here, the middle and working classes are losing financial ground.
To be clear, I’m not saying a revolution is on the horizon. That requires financial, organizational and leadership resources.
But to thwart that possibility, I recommend you choose one of two options.
The first is for you to pay a little more in taxes and use that money to reduce taxes on the working and middle classes and pay off the national debt, which stems from the tax cuts that have benefited you. You have plenty of disposable income to make America more American. Heck, how many Disney World vacations can you take? You also have the power to change the tax system, because you know that you and your corporations and foundations exert a great deal of control over politicians in Washington and your states.
The second option — if you don’t have the will to reduce taxes on the lower classes — is to stick a sign in your front yard that says, “I am not a member of the top 10 percent.”
That should keep you and your wealth safe.
Your 90-Percenter Friend,
David Demers
Demers is author of Falling Behind: How Wealth Gaps Are Preventing You and Half of America from Getting Ahead, a book that will be published in 2025. He worked as a newspaper reporter and college professor before retiring to spend more time writing. He can be reached at [email protected] or 623-363-4668 or DrDavidDemers.com