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The Dow Jones has been on the rise, and the unemployment rate is 3.8 percent. The  economy is humming, but is everyone benefitting? It depends on where you stand on the economic ladder. Let’s take a look, starting at the top.

Wealth at the top is increasing. According to the Spectrum Group, the number of households with a net worth of $1 million to $5 million, not including primary residence, grew in 2016 to 10.8 million; households with a net worth of $100,000 to $1 million increased to 30.5 million.

Those at the top own a larger share of the nation’s wealth than in years past. Bloomberg News reported that the top 10 percent’s share of the nation’s wealth increased from 61 percent in 1989 to 70 percent in 2018, while the bottom 50 percent’s share decreased from 3.8 percent to 1.2 percent.

Pew Research Center data shows that, while median income for upper, middle and lower-income households all decreased from 2000 to 2010, median income in 2016 for upper-income households exceeded the 2000 level. Not so for the other groups. For middle-income households, 2016 was roughly the same as 2000; for lower-income households, median income in 2016 was less than in 2000.  

No surprise, we have a widening income gap. In 1970, those near the top of the income ladder had 6.9 times as much income as those near the bottom. That ratio increased to 8.7 in 2016, meaning average incomes of $109,578 versus $12,523.  And, yes, these numbers are adjusted for inflation.

Despite the economic boom, the poverty picture hasn’t changed much. The poverty rate in 2017, 12.3 percent for families—$25,465 annual income for two adults and two children—is roughly what it was in 2007. The same goes for the poverty rate of 18 percent for children under 18 years of age.   

What does all this mean in terms of daily living? Advocacy group Prosperity Now tells us several things. Over 20 percent of jobs pay a wage that is below the poverty threshold for a family of four. One in five households experience moderate to significant income fluctuations monthly. Forty percent of households don’t have enough savings to make ends meet at the poverty level for three months if their income is interrupted. 

Based on a CBS survey conducted last January, the vast majority of workers live paycheck to paycheck. After a 16-day government shutdown in 2013, roughly two-thirds of furloughed federal employees said they had less than two weeks of savings. On the day before payday, one in five reported they had less than a day’s pay left in the bank.

The Economic Innovation Group estimates that 50 million Americans live in economically distressed communities, characterized by, on the average: 21.9 percent of adults without a high school degree, a 26.3 percent poverty rate, a 14.7 percent housing vacancy rate, median income that is 68.2 percent of the nation’s median income, and net job losses.

Most of these communities have been on a downward trajectory for years and are unable to attract new business, and so they continue to fall further behind. The Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017 creates incentives that will supposedly spur investment in these areas. 

Demand at food pantries and evictions evidence how a large sector of the population suffers. When the Mid-Ohio Food Bank opened in 1980, it distributed 240,000 meals per year. It now distributes enough food to make 140,000 meals each day, yet hunger persists.

Over 700,000 Ohio tenant households spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, and one-fourth spend over half, according to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. The gap between income and rent resulted in18,000 eviction actions last year in Franklin County.

But there’s some good news: the large majority our national leaders are comfortable. OpenSecrets.org tells us that in 2015 70 senators were millionaires and the median net worth of representatives increased to $875,000.

[This post was published as an op-ed in The Columbus Dispatch on April 29, 2019.]

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Jack D’Aurora writes for Considerthisbyjd.com

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