Donald Jeffries has written a book filled with facts and figures to illustrate how the richest have survived in the United States. Since the book lends itself to a summary of information, I will not use word-for-word quotations.. These are selective excerpts of what I feel is important information.
The book reference is: Donald Jeffries, "Survival of the Richest" (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017).
p. xiii - A 2013 survey from Bankrate found that 76 percent of Americans are now officially living paycheck-to-paycheck. The survey found that only one-fourth possess enough money in savings to cover at least six months of expenses, cushion the loss of a job or unexpected illness, or deal with an emergency. 50 percent had less than three months of savings and 27 percent had no savings at all. A 2015 survey from GoBanking Rates found that 62 percent had less than $1,000 in savings.
In an article in the March 1, 2013 Minimum Wage Union Workers of America blog, after adjusting for inflation, 90 percent of Americans were earning less than what minimum wage workers made in 1950. When factoring in the productivity rate, the minimum wage should have been $28.56 per hour in 2010.
p. xv - The Census Bureau says 146 million Americans are either poor or low-income. The wealthiest 1 percent have more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. U.S. families with a head of household under age 30 have a 37 percent poverty rate.
p. xvi - The wealthiest 10 percent control 76 percent of the wealth and the top 50 percent control 99 percent.
p. 5 - By 2016, 'average' salary of major league baseball players was $4.4 million a year; an 'average' of $5.2 million for NBA players; an 'average' of $2.5 million for NHL players; and an 'average' of $2.1 million for NFL players.
p. 6- According to the Credit Swiss Global Wealth Databook, by the end of 2013, 75.4 percent of all wealth in the U.S. belonged to the richest 10 percent, and the bottom 90 percent owned only 24.6 percent of aggregate wealth.
p. 7 - Lloyd C. Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, received over $70 million in compensation in 2008, and his company received $10 billion in the bailout. J.P. Moran Chase's James S. Dimon earned nearly $28 million, while his company had received $25 billion in the bailout. Nine banks awarded bonuses of nearly $33 billion in 2008, and six of the nine paid out more in bonuses than they earned in profits.
p. 8 - Citigroup, which received 25 percent of the bailout money going to the nine banks, paid $98.9 million in compensation to Andrew Hall, head of their energy-trading unit.
p. 9 - GE, which paid no tax in 2010, paid an average of just 1/8th of a percent in taxes between 2002 and 2011.
By 2015, the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay was 204 to 1.
p. 12 - A Pew poll found that 43 percent of Americans born in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder never move up at all, and 70 percent never reach the middle rung.
The top 1 percent own half of all stocks in the country, while the bottom 50 percent own .5 percent of them, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. The 1 percent has only 5 percent of the collective personal debt.
p. 17 - Over 90 percent of small businesses have yearly revenues of less than $250,000. "Small Business Trends" reports that the "typical new business" in the U.S. is no longer in business five years after being founded. A 2014 study by Barclays found that only 21 percent of millionaires in the U.S. cited a business deal or profit as their source of wealth, versus 40 percent from around the world. The Wall Street Journal researched 60 big U.S. corporations and said they were keeping over 40 percent of their annual profits out of the country.
p. 18 - At a May 2013 Senate hearing, Apple revealed it had paid only 2 percent tax on its estimated $74 billion in profits.
p. 22 - Average compensation for a board of directors member at S & P 500 companies had risen to $276,667 by 2015.
I will continue with these excerpts from Donald Jeffries's book in my next blog.
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