Like Megan McArdle, I don't give a darn about income inequality or asset inequality as long as people do not starve in the streets, and have opportunity and freedom to make their own path in life, but, in many years of talking to people, the patterns and major causes of very low reported income - bottom 1-4% - just call it the 1% because Life has a bell curve for economics -are obvious to me:
- Youth, career beginning, and education debt
- Single motherhood
- temporary unemployment
- Life style choice
- Lack of marketable skills
- Living where there are no jobs to match skills
- Very bad luck
- Mental illness, addiction, etc.
- Lack of cultural mastery, whether via recent immigration or whatever
- Chronic disabling illness
- A history of poor decision-making and life strategizing
- Low IQ
- Character traits such as laziness, inability to get along with people, lack of organization, initiative, goals, self-discipline, or ambition, no discipline to save money, impulsivity, poor planning, lousy judgement, etc etc.
- Income data gaps due to the numbers of people who work off the books (for a dramatic example, our clinic realised that there was a 30-woman prostitution ring working out of a nearby government housing project)
- Choosing to work the welfare/disability/food stamp/child care etc. system (with a couple of kids, the all with full government benefits brings them up to a working class standard of living without working. That ought to be good enough, roughly equivalent to a $40,000 salary). Our support system will bring you close to $30,000/yr in cash and/or benefits including unlimited free medical care)
- History of criminality or career criminality
Everybody knows these things, but they are never talked about. I think that list covers pretty much all of the income poverty that I have seen. I have been lucky, and have worked my butt off as a physician, and still am not wealthy. I work because I need to be useful. For wealth-building, being a traditional gal, I rely on my beloved hubby. I stand by my statement, however, that money isn't happiness. It just provides choices.
You have to have things and people that you love, independence, and integrity, to make a good life.
...and all about what individual choices have wrought:Youth, career beginning, and education debtSingle motherhoodtemporary unemploymentLife style choiceLack of marketable skillsLiving where there are no jobs to match skillsVery bad luckMental illness, addiction, etc.Lack of cultural mastery, whether via recent immigration...
Tracked: Nov 14, 21:27