A $95,000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in the US?

[mawilson 2,133]

Whites got a head start on wealth creation.

It's easier to go from $1m to $2m than it is from 0 to $1m, even though the same amount of wealth is created in both cases.

[KaiserD 12]

There were also social factors, the study found. "In African-American families there is a much larger extended network of kin as well as other obligations. From other work we've done we know that there's more call on the resources of relatively well-off African-American families; that they lend money that's not given back; they help cousins go to school. They help brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, with all kinds of legal and family problems," said Shapiro.

Oh goodness. I don't know how true this is in general but it's a headache in our family. My inlaws worked very hard to be where they are, holding down their jobs and they have huge amounts of pressure currently from other members of family to give them money who down the road have been very fiscally irresponcible. It's given my poor DH a total headache. Ultimately they feel the pressure of obligation.

On the other hand my brother (we are all white), who is also in a combined pile of debt with his wife...I would not help him even if I could. I want to, I absolutely do but he has to learn to live within his means. I know you want to take your kids to swimming and gym classes (so do I!) and you want the latest game to have something to show for your money but if you can't you can't.

The best chance that poor kids have are through free public schools even if they are substandard. The alternative of dropping out of school or graduating with few goals post high school helps perpetuate the cycle of hopelessness that runs in some families. if you give up on yourself at age 18, it's hard to recover but a few manage to do it.

In Runcorn, there was a sweet little girl who lives next door to my grandparents. Her parents asked me to watch her for a few hours one day so I said no problem and I asked her what she did at school that day. She took out a poem she wrote at school with her friend, and I was absolutely gob smacked - it was all about wearing makeup and short skirts, getting boyfriends and getting pregnant. I felt sick, 12 year old kids don't come up with that without influence from outside sources - I fear it may be a self fulfilling prophecy from last I heard. She certainly won't be alone. Seriously, what kind of future is that...

The government can't do anything because people will be offended at having parenting skills called out but at the same time you can't ignore such a problem either. I absolutely believe that the media has cultivated the problem. Responsibility and self empowerment whatever your race/gender/other status hardly makes for interesting tv.

Controversy on the other hand...

Oh and ultimately, this society runs on people without the determination to improve their lot. Nobody aspires to do garbage pickup and yet someone has to do it.

**I agree - similar topics merged (which removes the creative/racial title)someone has to do it. Just something to think about.

Thanks!

Whites got a head start on wealth creation.

It's easier to go from $1m to $2m than it is from 0 to $1m, even though the same amount of wealth is created in both cases.

Yeah, it's not like the whole of America went "Here's your right to sit where you want on the bus, want me to give you a loan for that new business?"

Edited May 18, 2010 by KaiserD

[Niels Bohr 72]

This is another of example which the News Headlines are nothing more than just opinion.

[ScottThuy 140]

it only shows a difference in spending and saving habits over time... too much opinion and too little fact...

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Simple. Because blacks, despite the fact they are equal to whites in every way (and BETTER at sports) and have exactly the same opportunity, have been convinced in larger numbers they "need" to depend on the government.

Government programs to "help" people, particularly minorities, are simply programs designed by racists to limit the possibilities for people that use them. When the black people in larger numbers say..."Thanks, but no thanks, I can do this myself" they will be far more successful as a whole.

How can a race get ahead when they are being held back in much higher proportion by government programs? Do blacks in government paid ghettos expect to do better than Indians on government paid reservations? When they relaize that they have been "put there" and lured there with promisies of payment, only to be locked up and held there in dead end programs DESIGNED to make them dependent and keep them where the racists want them....will they have any chance to succeed.

When they realize that these "advocates" are racists who have discovered a politically correct way to enslave them, they will get ahead. when they realize a "free program" guarantees only dependence on free prgrams and no possibility of wealth, they will get ahead.

When they realize these programs actually BAN wealth and prevent them from anything of their own BY LAW, will they get ahead. Only when they realize that accepting increased government money for each child they can produce but ONLY if they do not get married and have a "family" is NOT the way to prosperity and wealth...will they get ahead.

After all, we DO have a black President and last I looked, THAT is not an affirmative action job.

[DEDixon 39]

.... dependence .....

i thought it was funny to find out that in Maryland, they call the gov't issued credit card like thing that the poor uses to buy food with the "independence card." LOL, now that is funny! INDEPENDENCE!!!

[GabiandVi 34]

i thought it was funny to find out that in Maryland, they call the gov't issued credit card like thing that the poor uses to buy food with the "independence card." LOL, now that is funny! INDEPENDENCE!!!

My students in my first school called the social security check that they got due to some invisible disability their "crazy checks." They would miss school on the first of the month because they were out spending their "crazy checks."

I once overheard my students with some of the greatest potential discussing what they were going to do with their futures. One of the respectable options was to "let Uncle Sam take care of" them. The other was to go to university.

My students actually think that people will go to jail if someone doesn't give them, the students, lunch before they are sent home on early release days.

[GabiandVi 34]

How you can reverse this general trend though, I don't know. If you have a kid that is being raised at a bad school by a parent/set of parents who don't care about their education because they also got raised that way then that's really not a good start for empowering someone to take control of their life.

*Though succeeding in life, if you're pretty poor you face a much bigger battle than someone who's parents are rich.

Agreed with the latter. As for the former, I also agree. However, I think one way to empower kids to take control of their lives is to offer them realistic options. Most high schools' curricula are college prep. Our district is going to offer vocational options starting next year. I don't know all the details, but I fear it will only be a cosmetic change. But at least it's a start.

We have no control over how these kids are raised, which is the BIGGEST factor in their performance in school (consider that if you support merit pay, Obama). But we can stop our elitist attitudes about college prep and votech tracking.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My students in my first school called the social security check that they got due to some invisible disability their "crazy checks." They would miss school on the first of the month because they were out spending their "crazy checks."

I once overheard my students with some of the greatest potential discussing what they were going to do with their futures. One of the respectable options was to "let Uncle Sam take care of" them. The other was to go to university.

My students actually think that people will go to jail if someone doesn't give them, the students, lunch before they are sent home on early release days.

Crazy?

You want to know the REAL reason New Orleans was not evacuated? Really? The storm hit on the 29th day of a 31 day month. Two more days until "pay day". THAT is why they didn't leave. THAT is "depedence" THAT is control. The government absolutely positively has total and absolute control over where ALL those people will live, eat, go to school. They had MORE freedom as slaves, property of plantation owners.

Had the government, who knew the storm waws coming for 5 days, gone down there and handed out the welfare checks they would be sending about that time anyway, they city would have self-evacuated. The government would have saved billions, the Super-dome would not have been destroyed and George Bush would not look like such a dumb@ss.

BUT, they did not WANT to. Mayor Ray Nagan would have been afraid that if people can self evacuate, they may not return. People that are INdependent can do what they want and they may not come back to vote for him. His job was dependent on the people he enslaved to vote for him. So he wanted to control how they left, so he could control how they come back.

Black people who are INdependent of government are every bit as successful as white people. White people DEpendent on government are every bit as unsuccessful as black people who are DEpendent on the government. That was the whole premise of "the Beverly Hillbillies" in case you missed that part. Black people living in Cambridge, MA are NOT dependent on government. White people living in trailers in Podunk, KY ARE dependent. The common denominator is NOT skin color, it is government DEpendence.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

The fact is, even among those who have equal opportunity, equal outcomes cannot be guaranteed.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

How you can reverse this general trend though, I don't know. If you have a kid that is being raised at a bad school by a parent/set of parents who don't care about their education because they also got raised that way then that's really not a good start for empowering someone to take control of their life.

*Though succeeding in life, if you're pretty poor you face a much bigger battle than someone who's parents are rich.

1. Close and tear down ALL government housing. Replace it with vouchers for renatlas that allow people to get out and choose their own place to live and schools for kids. If the ghetto housing unit costs the government $50,000 per year, and most of them cost MORE than that per unit, then give that money for housing. You thik they could get something better for $4000 per month?

2. Cut off federal sunds to ANY state that issues drivers licenses to persons under 21 years old that do not have a high school education or are not enrolled in school. No high school, no drivers license before age 21.

3. Government fundsing of education through a bachelors degree for anyone that wants it. Cheaper than welfare

4. REQUIRE people receiving welfare to WORK. Crazy? Why? Unless they are adjudged physically or mentally disabled, set it up so they can receive SUPPLEMENTAL income FOR working. Stop REQUIRING people to be poor. Stop REQUIRING people to be unemployed.

5. DO NOT fund additional babies for unwed mothers. Cohesive pamily units are beneficial to our country. DO give assiastance to FAMILIES with children. DO NOT continue to pay additional money for unwed mothers. DO NOT penalize mothers who get married.

6. REQUIRE education for persons receiving public benefits. NO public benefits unless you have at least a high school education. If you do not, then you must enroll in a school and remain enrolled while receiving benefits. EDUCATION, more than anything, reduces the likihood of needing public aid. The vast majority of people on public aid have no high school education. Almost none have college educations. NONE who are on public aid for any length of time have college educations. College is cheaper than welfare, period.

The sad fact is that the total benefits offered FAR exceed in value what that person could be expected to earn in the free market. That is the plan of dependence. Most people on welfare cannot afford to get off welfare and have no chance EVER of doing so. It is completely NOT to their advantage or their children's. It is such a perfect trap, such a perfect tool for enslaving people and controlling where they live.

The average welfare recepient lacks the skills and education to even hope to make more than minimum wage, yet they are being offered 10 times that amount in benefits, free housing, food, medical care, spending money. They MUST stay poor, they MUST stay uneducated, they MUST stay uneducated. They MUST stay dependent.

We need to make it advantageous NOT to stay on welfare, we need to make it POSSIBLE not to stay on welfare. We need to offer people a better hope than welfare for all their life.

This is not a problem that will go away overnight, it was designed to be permanent and debilitating to a certain part of the population, it works very well in that regard, just as designed.

The first step would be FREE paid education through 4 years of college for ALL citizens and legal residents, the return would far exceed the cost.

Anyone knows I am NOT one to promote government programs, which is exactly why I support this one. It will eventually eliminate the need for the others.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

The fact is, even among those who have equal opportunity, equal outcomes cannot be guaranteed.

True. And that will happen naturally, and not be disproportionate IF the government will stop sabotaging the futures of certain parts of the population.

[ScottThuy 140]

Record numbers using food stamps. The Agriculture Department said a record 40 million Americans, or 1 in 8 Americans, may not be able to eat without government assistance.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/america%27s-underclass-the-growing-gap-between-the-rich-and-poor-487302.html?tickers=dltr,xhb,tlt,^dji,^gspc,kbh,xrt

[Danno 1,228]

Whites got a head start on wealth creation.

It's easier to go from $1m to $2m than it is from 0 to $1m, even though the same amount of wealth is created in both cases.

We hear this all the time and it might be true in your experience but not in mine.

I grew up middle class, my father inherited about 5 grand once.... when he was 65...... when his mother died, and I am still waiting for my big inheritance.

Of the friends I grew up with and kept up with, none have had any financial boost from parents except perhaps help with tuition.

We could look at this from other angles as well, I would be willing to bet Jewish folk end up way ahead of the average as well, I know the few I grew up with in the neighborhood are doing very well (good for them).

Somehow there is this assumption in this country that we are all clean slates and our outcomes should be predictable ... if every thing is fair in life.

I don't believe this, some people are born with more drive or intelligence or intuition and when you compound this slight variance .... it can add up to a sizable amount.

SOme people value different things in life, so I don't make judgments if someone spends the best years of their youth in school for a brighter tomorrow nor do I judge the guy who takes his paycheck, spends it all on his young family and lives for today.

BUt I suppose someone crunching the numbers will find "unfairness" when these two people reach fifty.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Record numbers using food stamps. The Agriculture Department said a record 40 million Americans, or 1 in 8 Americans, may not be able to eat without government assistance.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/america%27s-underclass-the-growing-gap-between-the-rich-and-poor-487302.html?tickers=dltr,xhb,tlt,^dji,^gspc,kbh,xrt

1 in 8 is just about the percentage of black people in the country. Coincidence? Of course I know many white people get food stamps, almost ALL the poeple getting food stamos in Vermont are white...and I don't even need a survey to figure that out. Outside the near north end of Burlington there are about 3 black people in the whole state.

Funny how they promote the idea that these people "can't eat without the government" and you still think it isn't a program to support dependence? Like children "will go hungry" if we don't pay for their hot lunch (nad now breakfast) at school. NO, they will bring a PB&J sandwich from home with an apple and two cookies like I did for about 3000 years. They will eat breakfast at home. We didn't even have a "cafeteria" we had a Gymnasium with folding tables and chairs and small cartons of milk in insulated boxes for 3 cents (there were 3 pennies in my lunch sack)

Alla does interpretation services for the Dept. of Agriculture (Among others) for people applying for food stamps, welfare, etc. She was TOLD by the people there that SHE should apply for food stamps also! She told them she could not because of her immigration status...she was told "No problem". She told them her husband makes alot of money and our family doesn't need help...she was told to apply and let THEM decide if we needed help!!!!!!! They gave her forms to fill out for food stamps, fuel assistance, "Dr. Dynasaur" (medicaid for kids) "Reach-UP", WIC (our youngest child is 15) etc. They are PROMOTING government dependence. NO we did not fill out the forms.

They have, in fact, been saying that Vermont has "only" 74% "compliance" with the food stamp program. Compliance? What does that mean? It means that Vermont only uses 74% of the money allocated to the state for food stamps. Now, to me (silly me) this would seem a GOOD THING, but not to people who make their living off poor people and "fighting poverty" If the food stamp budget is cut 26% because we don't need it (a good thing?) then a bunch of those people will be applying for...food stamps. So they PROMOTE signing people up for their programs, even those not eligible by virtue of an I-864 or because they are well into the "wealthy category" or even both.