The median wealth of a single black woman - absolute madness

[malaise]

Women of all races bring home less income and own fewer assets, on average, than men of the same race, but for single black women the disparities are so overwhelmingly great that even in their prime working years their median wealth amounts to only $5.

In a groundbreaking report released Monday by a leading economic research group, social scientists turned a spotlight on the grave financial challenges facing an often overlooked group of women, many of whom could not take an unpaid sick day or repair a major appliance without going into debt.

"It's rather shocking," said Meizhu Lui, director of the Closing the Gap Initiative based in Oakland, Calif., who contributed to the report "Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth and America's Future."

Among the most startling revelations in the wealth data is that while single white women in the prime of their working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600 (still only 61 percent of their single white male counterparts), the median wealth for single black women is only $5.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041225-28.stm#ixzz0iACADoRI

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This is beyond frightening!

[Ozymanithrax]

1. It does show that the idea that the country has some how made up for slavery is a lie.

[ensho]

3. kick

nt

[malaise]

5. Only in one sense

It makes up for slavery by throwing black men in prisons for 'white' misdemeanors. Black men must never be free.

[RandomThoughts]

2. This is an interesting comment. from the article

"If wealth was based on hard work, African-Americans would be the wealthiest people in our nation," she said. "It's not about behavior. It's about government policies. Who does the government help and who is it not helping?


It is also about who lobbies for those very governmental policies.

That comment counters many on the right that argue is about work ethic.

Although they just would not believe that comment.

[malaise]

4. Yep I noted that as well

but of course the RW caricature is 'lazy, welfare queens' - a complete inversion of reality.

[ensho]

6. racism is as nasty as it has always been - however

I think black women have reached the tipping point, are banding together to make actual change.

whether white men in power like it or not.

I've said before that if anybody knew how to run govts. for the people, it is the blackest of black women. and I do mean the color of the skin.

the rich white man has been at the top of the pile for too long. and the blackest of black women have been on the bottom of the pile for too long and are not going to take it anymore.

(its like the native peoples of the world have finally banded together and are making change. witness South Amer.)

[Lyric]

7. Kick and rec because this is incredibly important.

[ensho]

8. kicking Malaise's thread before I go because it is important

nt

[BlueIris]

9. These findings are quite startling. Maybe they shouldn't startle me, but they do. nt

[malaise]

15. I still cannot believe these figures

They are shocking!

[Raineyb]

10. Kick

I do so get tired of hearing about how everything is equal.

[Igel]

13. It's not equal.

You don't have equal starting points, so I don't know why you expect equal outcomes.

Blacks in the US have lower average
education achievement
inherited wealth
marriage rates
incomes

Blacks in the US have higher average
birth rates
crime rates for some categories of crime--even in descriptions of perps by same-race victims
incarceration rates (even controlling for crime category, but not for prior convictions)
rates of single mothers
likelihoods of living in pockets of persistent poverty
rates of childhood poverty

In other words, a black woman is more likely to be single, with more kids, lower income, live in an area with few opportunities, and have lower income than a white woman of the same age.

Income and education are correlated. Poverty depends on the family income divided by the number of family members: Larger family --> easier to be in poverty. Moreover, more kids --> harder to have steady, high-paying job or go to college.

I look at kids in my neighborhood. They make choices when they're young; their parents make choices for them. The choices have consequences later. Did they choose the consequences? No, but they failed to predict them--or, most of the time, they've been convinced that the consequences would be the same regardless of their actions so they may as well do what's easy, fun, or cool. They're wrong. But this is what their parents often tell them, in word or in action. The same bad choices are made by kids and parents of other ethnicities; you can find white, Asian, and Latino communities like the majority-black community I live in, with the same bad choices and the same bad outcomes. It's just that blacks disproportionately have failed to make the choices that would lead away from the bad outcomes. (It's been pointed out that the immigrant Latino youth is bifurcating: Some areas see them making the same kinds of choices as the nearby impoverished black community; some areas see them making choices similar to what previous generations of Latinos did. Some groups of recent Latino immigrants have outstripped the black average for income and wealth. Some haven't.)

Now, there's racism, to be sure. But once you eliminate a lot of things that result from choices, the amount of the wealth, income (etc.) gap due to racism diminishes. Nobody wants to hear that. It's hard to be empowered.

[tonysam]

11. The so-called "wealth" of married white women is a bunch of bunk

Virtually all of that "wealth" is tied up in real estate.

Very few people have anything anymore.

[Silent3]

14. Don't knock the value and importance of having real estate

While you might hope to keep your home until the day you die, maybe even pass it on to your family, at least if you have a home when get older, especially with a paid-off mortgage, you have the option of selling it and walking away with a pile of money than in many cases could pay for many years of apartment living or even assisted living care if you need it.

My house is 50% paid off right now, and should easily be fully paid off years before I turn 65. Last week I went looking at apartments with a friend who is going through a divorce and needs a place to stay. Even at the current somewhat battered market value of my house, the house would sell more than 30 years worth of rent payments in a fairly decent apartment, and if inflation of rent and housing prices roughly follow each other in the coming years, that math should roughly apply when I retire. Of course, over 30 years the rent would go up in price while the nest egg from selling the house couldn't be counted on, necessarily, to increase much in value sitting in some fairly low-risk investment plan, but still, I think I could count on at least a good 20 years worth of rent.

And that's before even touching my 401(k) or social security. With rent covered, social security would cover basic food and utility costs, and my 401(k) would be gravy on top of that. With the 401(k) and other savings added in, I could live quite comfortably in a private apartment, and even fairly decently in assisted living once I get too feeble to take care of myself.

I'd also have the option of staying in my home and having the cost of living there reduced to property taxes, utilities, and upkeep, or the option selling the house any buying a smaller, cheaper house in an area with a lower cost of living (where I live in NH, with no sales tax or income tax, property taxes are high to compensate, and can be a significant ongoing burden when holding onto property) with a nice pile of cash left over.

People who don't have wealth "tied up in real estate", and don't have much net worth from any other assets, don't have options like that when they get older.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

12. kick

and rec......this needs to be seen.


absolutely reprehensible.

[GCP]

16. In "the greatest country in the world" - this is absolutely shameful

And I, for one, feel the shame.