Senate Household Income in the U.S. (and elsewhere)

From the new U.S. Census report, and a few other sources:

2016 Gini index: .481. The U.S. has higher income inequality than all other OECD nations save Germany, Mexico, Italy, Israel and Portugal.

The best path to financial stability in the U.S. is to be Asian American, not be black or a single woman, live in a two-income family, or get a four-year college degree, preferably a STEM degree, or some combination of all those.

median household income Asian $81,143
median income family households $75,062
median household income nonhispanic white $65,041
engineer starting salary 2017 $64,891
median household Northeast $64,390
median household income West $64,275
median household income $59,039
median household income Midwest $58,305
median household income South $53,861
median income men $51,640
college grad starting salary average 2017 $49,785
median household income Hispanic $47,675
median income women $41,554
median household income black $39,490
median income nonfamily households $35,761
teacher average starting salary, 2017 $34,891
$15 an hour, full-time $31,200
current federal minimum wage, full time $15,080

 

According to the OP I make about the median income for a household in the south. But inflated cost of living ($1300/month rent for a 20 year old apartment) combined with the expenses of being a single parent with residential custody doesn't give me much opportunity to save and invest as I'd like.

I basically need to work every week without ever taking a vacation or a sick day to meet my monthly budget requirements.

 

That's the big question, right. Affordability of life at various income levels. 12.7% of Americans live in poverty, but that doesn't reflect how many households struggle with things like housing or emergency medical expenses or job training, etc. At median income levels, a lot of Americans struggle with things like a one-time $500 emergency expense.

 

$1300 / month for what sized apartment?

 

Yeesh, I need a better job.

 

The official poverty level in the United States is pathetically low. I think a better measure would be food insecurity (~50 million Americans).

 

$500? The iPhone X is $999 plus tax. The LEGO Falcon is $800 plus tax.

You live in a bubble.

 

And yet, it's still like top-16% for the world. It could always be worse!

A lot of this needs to be fixed. A LOT.

 

That's what revolving credit is for! A third of U.S. households carry credit card debt month to month. For households with unpaid credit card debt at the end of the month, the average I think is pretty high in the 4 figures.

 

Sounds totally reasonable!

 

I didn't include professional starting salaries.

Median starting salary, full time MBA program grad: $126,000
Average MD salary $131,881
Average JD starting salary - big range I think. top firms start close to $200k according to Bazinga'd
Average Masters degree engineer starting, $72,500
RN starting salary $66,000

 

I believe it. Most of the attorneys I know started practicing in the mid 1990s, so I'm way out of date on that.

 

It's not at all. But most people who want to talk about US poverty and income inequality hate globalism, and tend more towards the "America First" side of things which... isn't good either.

 

Globalism as it exists is deliberately structured to primarily benefit the wealthy and large corporations which... isn't good at all.

 

>be Asian American, done

>not be black or a single woman, done

>live in a two-income family, almost there

>or get a four-year college degree, preferably a STEM degree, done

Time to collect the dough

 

I "somewhat agree", but Ender Sai will tell you that globalism does help lift the absolute poor in developing countries out of poverty, and fewer of the world's soon to be 8 billion living on less than $2/day is a good thing.

 

Wrong STEM degree...

Sorry, physics boy... whomp whomp...

Also, in a more serious vein, I'd be interested in discovering that "Asian-American" in these stats would be lower/higher if they weighed out South Asian vs. East/SE Asian as that's typically where the stereotypes and casual racism come into play...

 

Yes, let's celebrate an accident of capital's search for cheap labor as though it's the reason for the whole endeavor.

And China isn't the whole world. The average Mexican, for example, has been negatively affected by NAFTA. And the entire continent of Africa is (still) robbed of tens of billions of dollars of its wealth (net) every year in our globalist system.

 

that's a good point. Census Bureau depends entirely on self-identification for ethnicity. Don't know what that implies if anything.

 

2015 data shows Indian Americans having the highest median income.

MASTER RACE

 

At the high end, it's a challenge I think to figure out how much debt it's reasonable to accumulate for what level of post secondary education. How much debt is ok for a 4 year degree. A masters degree. A JD, MD ($166k is the average for that), PhD. It will depend heavily on what the degree is and the quality of the school itself and how well the individual does in their degree. Doing well in school creates opportunities. Going to a better school creates opportunities. If you graduate near the top of your class in law school at University of Chicago and get an offer from Kirkland & Ellis at $200k at the age of 25, you can justify quite a bit of debt getting there. If you're going to be a public defender with a degree from John Marshall here in Chicago, maybe not so much debt.

 

It's a 2-bedroom 2-bath unit, no balcony. Back when I was going for my MBA, I lived in the nicer apartment complex across the street, also in a 2-bedroom 2-bath, but with a balcony. That unit cost $900/month back in 2008. That exact same unit without any upgrades now costs just over $1600/month. It still contains the exact same appliances I used almost 10 years ago, along with the same countertops, etc.

My current complex is the most affordable in the neighborhood. Admittedly, I live in a pretty large and somewhat prominent Orlando neighborhood, with easy commuting access to pretty much everywhere (downtown, Disney, Universal, Sea World, etc are all about a 15-20 minute drive), so I suppose the area can demand higher prices for older housing units due to its convenient location.

I could move 40-60 minutes away and pay cheaper rent, but then that would increase commute time to schools (better rated schools are usually located in more expensive neighborhoods, of course), work, etc, plus those areas farther away from Orlando proper seem to suffer more hurricane damage.