Posted on 08/09/2016 8:48:53 AM PDT by EinNYC
The racial wealth gap is so wide it would take black families over two centuries to catch up to white families, a jaw-dropping new study found.
Unless public policy intervenes, black households wouldnt amass the wealth of today's white households for another 228 years, according to research from the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Institute for Policy Studies.
The findings are part of a study, called The Ever-Growing Gap, that examined the accumulation of wealth over the past 30 years and how wealth-building policies have disproportionately given white, already wealthy Americans a boost.
Over the past three decades, the average wealth of white families has grown by 84%, which is a staggering three times as fast as the rate for African-American families and 1.2 times the growth rate for Latino families.
At that rate, it would take until the year 2244 for the average black family to accumulate wealth that matches what white families have today.
Even more unfortunate, the extreme rise in overall wealth inequality over the past three decades has only served to further compound and exacerbate this racial wealth divide, the study reads.
The authors of the study suggest that racial economic disparities go hand in hand with the social unrest in communities of color and tensions with the criminal justice system.
In the last decade, we have seen the catastrophic economic impact of the Great Recession and an ensuing recovery that has bypassed millions of Americans, especially households of color. This period of economic turmoil has been punctuated by civil unrest throughout the country in the wake of a series of high-profile African-American deaths at the hands of police, the study reads.
The following are some of the studys most startling findings:
*Decades of discriminatory housing policies and market practices have resulted in homeownership among only 41% of Black families and 45% of Hispanic families compared to 71% of white families; homeownership still remains one of the greatest sources of Americans wealth.
*The 400 richest Americans own more wealth than the entire black population, plus one-third of the Latino population combined
*Black Americans have higher average unemployment rates, at 8.6%, than white Americans, at 4.4%
*Latino and Black families are paid up to $20,000 less on average per year than white households
*Over two-thirds of Black and Hispanic households lack the savings necessary to subsist at the poverty level for three months, compared to only one-third of white households
*Wealth returns on a four-year degree is much for valuable for white graduates than it is for black and Hispanic graduates
The group who put together the study is calling on Congress to consider policy options to help close the gap in racial economic disparity and reduce the wealth concentration at the top.
This includes identifying policies that perpetuate the wealth divide through a government-wide audit, fixing tax policies to ensure they help families of color build wealth, and closing federal estate-tax loopholes and creating an annual net worth tax on high-wealth individuals.
Given the trajectory of the racial wealth divide and the future demographics of our country, failure to address this growing problem will severely impact the economic opportunity of communities of color, and it will have serious ramifications for the overall economic well-being of our nation, the study reads.
How is it that so many black families have already achieved so much wealth?
Get the hell out... My family arrived in this nation in the 1900s... and on average is probably slightly above average in the wealth it has accumulated... I am more than willing to accept that black families were not able to acquire wealth at the same rates prior to the mid 60s, but moving past that its hard to argue that they were socially disadvantaged to a way that their ability to accumulate wealth was zero SO how you get to a 250 years to reach the average is idiotic.... To claim that is to effectively claim that blacks have not participated in any way in the economics of this nation in its entire history, which is absurd... just as its absurd to assume every white person born here can trace their personal wealth back to the founding fathers time.
Blacks work to get ahead too, just sadly very large segments of their population (compared to other races) do not... lets not throw everyone in the same boat here... there are plenty of successful, working, decent Blacks in America... unfortunately they are hindered by a subgroup among them, that tears holes in the very fabric of much of parts of their social structure.
The article is also completely incorrect. A study was done to test the idea that lazy rich white young people eschewing education would hold onto their wealth in a more “privileged” way than motivated black people would be able to rise out of poverty via education.
The study found that the distribution of incomes (not wealth, but that would follow) in the middle was identical in less than one generation.
In other words, yes, something like 20% of lazy rich kids remained in high income brackets regardless of their laziness. And something like 20% of the poor black kids remained poor, in spite of their personal initiative in getting an education. But 80% or so of both groups ended up indistinguishable from each other in the job market...in less than one generation.
Sorry, can’t find the reference. I just remember that it was an attempt to show white privilege and showed that basic equality is closer to the truth.
I don’t buy it.
3 generations ago my family was dirt poor mechanics, cops, and vaudevillians. They were wops, micks, and krauts.
While I’m not rolling in it, I own my own company and do okay.
Precious little snowflakes have to actually work? Cry me a river.
Back in the post World War II days of Jim Crow, blacks actually had a lower unemployment rate than whites. Now, remind me why it is that we have to capitalize Black when referring to a race, but not white.
Is there a possibility that public policy has by making living on handouts a more attractive alternative than working has contributed to this situation?
When a couple marries, whether they lived together before or not, they start to plan more long term. The married couples plan more for the future like saving more for children’s college and retirement relative to unmarried couples.
And the constant shifting of partners and divided loyalties of multiple children between multiple partners prevents accumulation of wealth.
Blacks have had three times the illegitimacy rate of whites for generations. The recent change since the 1960s has been illegitimacy becoming the NORM for blacks and the lower class in general, essentially trapping them there.
Median IQ
Asians: 110
Whites: 100
American
Blacks: 85
Muslims, Mexicans
S. Americans: 80-85
Sub-Saharan
Africans: 70
Australian
Aboriginals: 65
There will always be inequality in academic and economic attainment. Since it is FORBIDDEN to talk about IQ, whites MUST be blamed for inequalities.
It would take White families 5000 years to catch up with them in crime, single-parenting, dope, and whining about how poor they are.
As Charles Barkley is quoted as saying: ‘Black People have been voting Democrat (DemonRat, mine) for 50 years and they’re still poor’. He ain’t wrong.
Here’s one of many fed programs designed to help minority businesses. Hop to it, people, and make money:
The Procurement Opportunity Programs (POP) provide direct HUD contracting and subcontracting opportunities to businesses and organizations which are eligible for preferential treatment under a variety of Federal laws, Executive Orders, etc. (e.g., the Small Business Act). Eligible organizations include: small, small disadvantaged, women-owned, historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone), veteran-owned, and service disabled veteran-owned small businesses.
Voting for all that hope n change did them no favors
With the black leadership that lies to the blacks they will never catch up.
New Deal and Affirmative action programs were co-opted by women {status as minorities}, leaving Black men out in the cold and black children without any male role models.
Arguable (wikipedia claims there was some early smelting in Africa), but your comment is much kinder than what I was about to post in the same vein, so I will desist.
Maybe it is time that we stop being kind and return to being the S.O.B’s of old.
Yes, it will come to that sooner or later. The push will lead to the backlash, as it always does (Newton knew it a few centuries ago - PC has been clouding that fact for a while, but it can’t persist).
BS - Asian Americans are the most successful group. They did not need 200+ years. Many of them have darker skin than African Americans!
“*Wealth returns on a four-year degree is much for valuable for white graduates than it is for black and Hispanic graduates”
You mean jobs requiring degrees in Hispanic studies dont pay as much as, say engineering?
I’m shocked!
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