Americans are the richest they have ever been (capitalism, tier, buying)

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by dcfas

Yes. What happens to that number when there is a 30% tank in the markets? Funny how you can have a fortune in your ira and barely anything in your checking account. In a sense, your retirement savings are just a number until you actually start drawing.

we spend 80% of all our investing time somewhere between the last low and last high ....bench marking off a high that lasts usually a day is a silly game our brain plays with us .

as time marches on we have higher highs and higher lows ... it reaches a point that even at the lows one is still way a head of where they would be had they avoided being invested all along .

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

we spend 80% of all our investing time somewhere between the last low and last high ....bench marking off a high that lasts usually a day is a silly game our brain plays with us .

As time marches on we have higher highs and higher lows ... It reaches a point that even at the lows one is still way a head of where they would be had they avoided being invested all along .

100%

[Supposn]

Originally Posted by EDS_

1. People can buy their own wifi.

2. According to The OECD The US is the number #2 spender on education behind only Luxembourg. Your share of GDP argument only works because most of the countries above us on that particular list have low per capita GDP numbers or are tiny.

3. I don't know what your last point is.

EDS, you can “buy” a subscription to a server; you cannot buy an unavailable signal. Western European Wi-Fi signals are more readily available throughout their nations and at lesser costs to their people.
Medical care, and education, and public transportation such as commuting to work are all lesser proportional cost to Western Europe’s, and much greater cost to USA’s less wealthy segments of their nations’ populations.

USA spend more for public education, but the aggregate consequences of USA’s spending is inferior to what many Western European nations achieve at lesser costs; (i.e. we spend more for inferior goods and service products).

What “last point” are you referring to? Respectfully Supposn

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by k374

The US Household Net Worth has hit records! This is totally at odds with the media narrative that so many people are suffering, so many people are living paycheck to paycheck etc.

Nationwide Housing prices are skyrocketing and people are falling hand over fist to buy them which only has to mean that there are way too many people with wads of cash for a down payment and getting wads of cash as income since qualification guidelines are still very strict. Many of these homes are crazy expensive too and still have hordes of buyers.

TSLA is having record deliveries which implies demand for a very expensive luxury product, which is what I consider Tesla to be, is at all time highs. This makes no sense if everyone has no money like you ready daily in the media.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/...virus-pandemic

But the distribution is highly skewed, with a few people being extremely wealthy but the median person having less wealth than the mean.

We should be looking at the median, not just the mean. In other words, the typical household.

[Supposn]

Originally Posted by ncole1

But the distribution is highly skewed, with a few people being extremely wealthy but the median person having less wealth than the mean.

We should be looking at the median, not just the mean. In other words, the typical household.

NCole1, you’re right; the essence of populism is “we all do better when we all do better”. Respectfully Supposn

[ddeemo]

Originally Posted by ncole1

But the distribution is highly skewed, with a few people being extremely wealthy but the median person having less wealth than the mean.

We should be looking at the median, not just the mean. In other words, the typical household.

The Federal Reserve conducts a survey of Consumer Finances every three years. According to the most recent data from the Fed’s Survey, the median net worth grew between 2013 and 2016. The median net worth of nonurban households grew by 25% to $87,900,the median net worth of urban households grew by almost 14% to $99,000.

Americans without a college degree experienced the largest gains in median net worth, up 24% to 29%, the median net worth of families headed by someone with a college degree increased just 2%.

So most has seen significant gains in wealth. Need to quit focusing on how someone else is doing (such as the wealthy), the average person is doing well also.

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by ddeemo

The Federal Reserve conducts a survey of Consumer Finances every three years. According to the most recent data from the Fed’s Survey, the median net worth grew between 2013 and 2016. The median net worth of nonurban households grew by 25% to $87,900,the median net worth of urban households grew by almost 14% to $99,000.

Americans without a college degree experienced the largest gains in median net worth, up 24% to 29%, the median net worth of families headed by someone with a college degree increased just 2%.

So most has seen significant gains in wealth. Need to quit focusing on how someone else is doing (such as the wealthy), the average person is doing well also.

Since they pulled financial info out of the census and went to a small random sampling , no one really knows what we have ...I couldn’t even guess my own building it varies so much

[Supposn]

Originally Posted by ncole1

But the distribution is highly skewed, with a few people being extremely wealthy but the median person having less wealth than the mean.

We should be looking at the median, not just the mean. In other words, the typical household.

Originally Posted by ddeemo

The Federal Reserve conducts a survey of Consumer Finances every three years. According to the most recent data from the Fed’s Survey, the median net worth grew between 2013 and 2016. The median net worth of nonurban households grew by 25% to $87,900,the median net worth of urban households grew by almost 14% to $99,000.

Americans without a college degree experienced the largest gains in median net worth, up 24% to 29%, the median net worth of families headed by someone with a college degree increased just 2%.

So most has seen significant gains in wealth. Need to quit focusing on how someone else is doing (such as the wealthy), the average person is doing well also.

DDeemo, is the cited Federal Reserve survey expressed in dollars of constant valued purchasing power, (i.e. U.S. dollars of a single specific year's value)? Otherwise the "real" values of your quoted statistics are somewhat reduced.
Please provide the link to the Federal Reserve graphs or charts from which you extracted your statistical items.
//////////
EDS, how do Federal Reserve statistics of families or individuals increases of mean incomes compare to any credible statistics for the same years experienced by the Western European nations you discuss?

Respectfully Supposn

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by ddeemo

The Federal Reserve conducts a survey of Consumer Finances every three years. According to the most recent data from the Fed’s Survey, the median net worth grew between 2013 and 2016. The median net worth of nonurban households grew by 25% to $87,900,the median net worth of urban households grew by almost 14% to $99,000.

Americans without a college degree experienced the largest gains in median net worth, up 24% to 29%, the median net worth of families headed by someone with a college degree increased just 2%.

So most has seen significant gains in wealth. Need to quit focusing on how someone else is doing (such as the wealthy), the average person is doing well also.

One of the most interesting bits within that data set is how much richer homeowners are than renters. Just about everyone would expect a trend in that direction but when I tell people/students the average HO has over 40x (last number I read was 46x) the net worth of the average renter......most don't buy it at first.

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by EDS_

One of the most interesting bits within that data set is how much richer homeowners are than renters. Just about everyone would expect a trend in that direction but when I tell people/students the average HO has over 40x (last number I read was 46x) the net worth of the average renter......most don't buy it at first.

It is almost like a saying those who own A Bentley are richer than those who own a Ford ....people are homeowners because they have the resources to be homeowners ....most renters are renters because they don’t have the money to buy .

Renters are a much broader group from poor to wealthy ..but most are renters only because they can NOT afford to buy ..

So homeowners are homeowners because they were a wealthier group to start with