# How Americans Really Think About Wealth



## Flaylo (May 2, 2011)

Wray Herbert: How Americans Really Think About Wealth




> The respondents clearly have a distorted grasp of wealth in America -- and they just as clearly want serious change. As reported in a forthcoming issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, they vastly underestimated the actual wealth inequality in the U.S., believing that the top one-fifth of Americans control 59 percent of the wealth, when in fact it's closer to 84 percent. What's more, their own ideal wealth distributions for the country are far more equitable than even their distorted perceptions of wealth in the U.S. The typical respondent would like to see the top one-fifth of American owning only 32 percent of the wealth. And here's the really interesting part: All the respondents -- including the wealthiest -- said they would redistribute the nation's wealth by moving a large amount of money from the very top to the bottom layers of society, suggesting concern for the nation's least fortunate. And all of the respondents -- even the poorest -- said they preferred some inequality to prfect equity.


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## editec (May 2, 2011)

I seriously doubt that anybody really knows the net worth of the truly staggeringly wealthy. The IRS admits that it really can't even establish actual incomes of the superwelthy, so establishing worth of assets has GOT to be even more problematic

AFter all, value and market price is really only testable when things are sold or at least when similar things have been sold to estimate value..

Some of the assets that the uber-wealthy have are seldom sold. They pass from generation to generation without ever going on the market. 

Many of those assets are so unique that there is no comparable price to determine their true value until that price is once again reestablished by a recent sale.


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## Stephanie (May 2, 2011)

Yeah right. I wonder who is going to TAKE the wealth from the people who have it to "give" to the less fortunate. When they do they can start with OUR CONGRESSCRITTERS.

November 17, 2010 4:45 PM
Number of Millionaires in Congress: 261
Posted by Stephanie Condon 15 comments



California Rep. Darrell Issa is the wealthiest member of Congress, according to an analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics
(Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

For Congress, debating the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans is personal.

While the base pay for members of Congress is $174,000, nearly half -- 261, to be exact -- are millionaires, according to an analysis of 2009 data from the Center for Responsive Politics (there are 535 total members of the House and Senate). Just 1 percent of Americans overall can say the same.

While the economy has generally faltered over the past two years, congressional members actually saw their collective personal wealth increase by more than 16 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to the study, which analyzed financial disclosure data released earlier this year.

As many as 55 members had an average calculated wealth of $10 million or more in 2009, according to the Center.

According to the Center's estimates, the wealthiest member of Congress is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose holdings exceed $303.5 million. Rep Jane Harman (D-Calif.) is close behind with $293.4 million, and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) rounds out the top three at $238.8 million.

Members of Congress are only required to report their wealth and liabilities in broad ranges, so the Center calculated each member's average estimated wealth by determining the minimum and maximum value of their assets. Additionally, federal financial disclosures don't require members of Congress to report certain assets such as personal residences.

The list of Congress' wealthiest members is bipartisan. In the House, five Democrats and five Republicans make up the 10 wealthiest members, while in the Senate, six Democrats and four Republicans make up the top 10.

The median wealth of a House member in 2009 stood at $765,010, while the median wealth for a senator in 2009 was nearly $2.38 million.

Members of the House and Senate made investments last year in a number of companies that have a strong presence on Capitol Hill, spending large sums on lobbying efforts and political donations. The most popular company among members of Congress, CRP found, was General Electric, in which 82 current members invested. The second most popular company was Bank of America, which 63 members invested in.

The CRP's report comes as Congress considers what to do about the Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year. President Obama has long advocated for extending the tax cuts for everyone except individuals making over $200,000 or families making over $250,000 -- the top 2 percent of income earners. Republicans and some moderate Democrats, however, want to extend all of the tax cuts, and the White House has signaled it is willing to compromise to a degree on the matter. 

Number of Millionaires in Congress: 261 - Political Hotsheet - CBS News


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## editec (May 2, 2011)

Just read recently ( in Niall Ferguson's book " The Ascent of Money") that in order to be in the top 1/10th of 1% of all taxpayers the minimum annual income is in the* $394 million dollar a year* range.


That's ANNUAL INCOME_ not net worth!_

I think what that really means is however most Americans _think_ the truly wealthy live, we seriously do not have a clue.

The Uberweathy are basically invisible to most of us.

If you or I had that much money and power, I expect most of us would remain in the shadows, too.

I mean, let's face it...if you have _that much money?_

You will be a target of very bad people, so maintaining a low profile does seem like a rational way for the stupendously wealth to live.

Seems to me like those folks are practically prisoners of their wealth.

Well taken care of prisoners to be sure, but prisoners by comparison to the mindless (I hestiate to say _careless freedom_, but in some ways that is the operative phrase) freedom most of us have.


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## andernorm (Dec 26, 2011)

Health is wealth as we all are aware of the fact, another thing is that American are very careful about the wealth. Taking proper care about the wealth is best for everyone and it is necessary also.


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## editec (Dec 26, 2011)

If you don'ty have your health?

What do you really have?

Meaningless baubbles _at best_


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## waltky (Dec 28, 2011)

Politicians gettin' richer whilst voters get poorer...

*Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents*
_5 Dec.`11 - Wealth gap grows between Capitol Hill, constituents_


> One day after his shift at the steel mill, Gary Myers drove home in his 10-year-old Pontiac and told his wife he was going to run for Congress.  The odds were long. At 34, *Myers was the shift foreman at the &#8220;hot mill&#8221; of the Armco plant here. He had no political experience and little or no money, and he was a Republican in a district that tilted Democratic.  But standing in the dining room, still in his work clothes, he said he felt voters deserved a better choice.  Three years later, he won.  When Myers entered Congress, in 1975, it wasn&#8217;t nearly so unusual for a person with few assets besides a home to win and serve in Congress. Though lawmakers on Capitol Hill have long been more prosperous than other Americans, others of that time included a barber, a pipe fitter and a house painter. A handful had even organized into what was called the &#8220;Blue Collar Caucus.&#8221;
> 
> But the financial gap between Americans and their representatives in Congress has widened considerably since then, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by The Washington Post.  Between 1984 and 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House more than doubled, according to the analysis of financial disclosures, from $280,000 to $725,000 in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars, excluding home *equity.  Over the same period, the wealth of an American family has declined slightly, with the comparable median figure sliding from $20,600 to $20,500, according to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from the University of Michigan.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Pelosi Spends Christmas at Posh Hawaiian Hotel*
_December 27, 2011 | House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was not dreaming of a white Christmas._


> For the third year in a row, the California Democrat shacked up in a sun-drenched, beachside hotel at Historic Ka'upulehu in Kona on the island of Hawaii, the Hawaii Reporter reported this week. For the past two years, Pelosi reserved a posh suite that fetches $10,000 a night.
> 
> The Four Seasons Resort Hualalai offers visitors beachfront dining, fashion boutiques and Jack Nicklaus signature golf, the paper reported. In years past, the paper reported, local taxpayers coughed up $34,000 for police detail to escort Pelosi around the island.
> 
> ...


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## California Girl (Jan 20, 2012)

An OpEd piece from April 2011.... seriously? We were - and continue to be - in a rather shaky economic situation as a country. Why is anyone surprised by the 'results'.

But.... it would be helpful if the writer - and the OP - learned to understand what a 'study' actually is. They only ever 'suggest', they rarely 'proof' anything. Much depends on how the study was undertaken,  how the questions were worded, whether this is part of a longitudinal study that measures how people's opinion changes over time.

In short, it's old and it tells us nothing. Nothing. Not. One. Thing.


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