The Modern Income Connundrum

We return now to the Question of Who exactly is Poor? The Question actually was Who is Rich? The Answer to that is probably Nobody, except the Warren Buffet types. I will retard the Argument, like the Post, to ability to Spend. One is not Free of Poverty until an Incident, or Series of Incidents, cannot whisk your financial resources away. Individual or familial illness can still evaporate One’s fortunes unless there is say $20 million to draw from, without waving Goodbye to the family Home. Wealth, in American society, is probably the Most Endangered Species that exists today. The best analysis may be to study the Triggers of Bankruptcy.

I have already listed the Number 2 ranked Reason for Loss of Personal Wealth–medical Recovery procedures. Some innocent Child will immediately ask what is Number 1; well, that Answer is simple: Loss of Personal Employment. 1.2 out of every 2 Households will suffer some financially catastrophic medical illness per 30 years of Work-life. A probable 1.8 out of Two Workers will lose their best-Paying Job somewhere within that 30-year Work-life, where they cannot find Employment equal in Pay again. Then We go to 1 in 4 Workers who will have a Income Flow problem within that 30-year Work-life: Mortgage boondoggle, Credit Card debt, or the growing Problem of loss of Underwriting Agent (the later must be explained: half the Businesses in the Country suffer from the Bank Buyouts, which universally bring a new list of compliance rules). The whole list insists on a necessitated increase of Income from their financial network, which is already strained by the competitive markets in which that Income generation operates; functionally put, Households and Individuals cannot easily transfer increasing Costs forward onto the Consumers.

The real likelihood states One is not going to be working the Best-Paying Job that they ever had, within a decade of having obtained it. They are also likely not to be working at the Job they enjoyed Most, after that decade. The Professionals have some security from these factors, but they are squeezed Operating Costs and high Wages for their Support staff. Few Income-Earners today can aggregate Wealth through simple Employment, but must turn to Investment strategies which too often fail to generate Profit. Globalization also removed much of the basic Safety from the Job markets, while destroying the negotiate power of unionized labor. It is sad to be Alone in the Crowd. lgl