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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5297
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007 - 01:42 pm: | 
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Blacks projected to have roughly $1 trillion in spending power by 2010
April 23, 2007
(Taylor Media Services) According to data compiled recently by essayist and retired patent attorney Richard Everett, African Americans are projected to have spending power of approximately $1 trillion a year by 2010. That will be a significant increase over the roughly $800 billion Blacks are believed to have spent in 2006.
The projection was part of a collection of data Everett compiled to showcase Black progress in America over the last 40 years. His essay concludes that Black accomplishments during the 40-year-period "are absolutely remarkable considering the handicaps imposed on African Americans by the preceding 340 years of racism." Among his other findings were that revenues for Black-owned businesses reached $88.6 billion in 2002 - up 24 percent from 1997 and median Black household income rose to $30,858 in 2005 - up from $25,642 in 1985.
Nevertheless, a whopping 24.9 percent of all Blacks are still officially classified as poor and critics complain that despite its absolute size, Black income is failing to create Black wealth because it tends to flow into Black communities and right back out. The most recent government figures (2002) show the typical white household had over 10 times as much accumulated wealth (or net worth) as the typical Black household. The median net worth (assets minus liabilities) for the typical white family was $88,651 compared to $7,932 for Hispanics and $5,998 for Blacks.
Copyright 2005, Louisiana Weekly Publishing Company
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20070423p |
Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 978
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007 - 02:54 pm: |
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"median Black household income rose to $30,858 in 2005 - up from $25,642 in 1985."
$25,642 in 1985 was worth $46,541.66 today, if you adjust for dollar devalulation. So in reality, black Americans are making less.
Furthermore, of those 75% of blacks who aren't poor, a healthy percentage are just a paycheck or two away from being poor. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4583
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007 - 04:32 pm: |
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Thank you Schak. I drew the same conclusion. If you factor in inflation over a twenty year period, $5,000 doesn't even begin to cover it. But I'm not a mathematician  |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4211
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 11:04 am: |
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This is one of the biggest myths of all time. Negroes sitting around fantasizing about what we could do it we took that one trillion dollars and did this and that
After these blacks get through paying all their expenses and bills they don't have two quarters to rub together. And on top of it all it is spread out over forty million people.
Pathetic.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9306
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 11:27 am: |
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Tonya,
There are roughly $35 million African Americans. And our per capita income is roughly $15,000. When you multiply both of those, you end up with $525 billion. So if our current spending power is indeed $800 billion, we're sure SPENDING a hell of a lot more than we're EARNING.
And THAT would explain why we're struggling to build wealth and power. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1971
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 12:57 pm: |
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Spending more than earnings explains a large part of it. But consider that middle class folks of most racial backgrounds spend more than they make. (That seems to be the "American Way" these days.)
The other big part of the difference, IMO, is that Whites have larger generational stores of wealth that can be passed on. This is due to many things--the value of their homes being higher than comparable homes Blacks own, their being able to more fully take advantage of GI bill provisions due to not experiencing overt racial bias in colleges and neighborhoods, being likely to incur a lower "kin liability" (e.g., better off family members having to financially assist worse off ones), Whites being more likely than Blacks to go into higher paying fields while Blacks often seem to have more of a "social justice" orientation in the fields they choose.
And on and on. Like with many things, we have to assume a larger individual responsibility for this kind of thing while at the same time not pathologizing it as a "Black thing" (it is not; it is an American thing). At the same time we have to acknowledge the longstanding institutional factors at play--and work to address some of those institutional factors. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9307
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 01:54 pm: |
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Yvettep,
I agree there a many institutional factors that come into play that manifest in the racial disparities. Still, Blacks typically spend a lot more on NON-APPRECIATING things they could elected to not spend as much for. We spend higher percentages of our income on automobiles, consume more, spend more on personal grooming, styling/fashion, etc. And we could tilt the scales more in our favor if we spent less on those things and more investing in resources (tangible and intangible) might increase our wealth. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8404
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 01:54 pm: |
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Your incisive posts are very often like a breath of fresh air, Yvette. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4218
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 02:05 pm: |
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We spend higher percentages of our income on automobiles, consume more, spend more on personal grooming, styling/fashion, etc. And we could tilt the scales more in our favor if we spent less on those things and more investing in resources (tangible and intangible) might increase our wealth.
(So you ain't supposed to get enjoyment out of your life. Work. Slave. Sock away all your dough like a miser. Die and leave a pile to somebody.
We used to know this old lady. She used to go around to the store and get scraps. She lived in a shack. Died (from malnutrition, yet) and had $20,000 cash socked away in her house. A guess you'd call that a success story.
Now you'll go into how she should have learned about stocks and bonds and all that and blah blah blah.
Forget this WE bull---
Do you know how white people start a business? They don't go around to white people trying to raise a collection.
They get a business plan together, go down to the bank and get a line of credit to do it.
Negroes. You are not ready. Just try to feed and clothe yourselves and your families and try to survive and stop trying to make up plans for a whole race of people.
You wouldn't know money or power if you tripped over it.
If you really had anything but some pie in the sky ideas you would be on here offering to take applications from us to establish a line of credit or get a loan. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8406
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 02:13 pm: |
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Is the is the same chrishayden who lambasts the black middleclass for being so concerned with material things????? |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1973
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 02:28 pm: |
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ABM, I agree about the need to spend more on things that will increase in value. Again, I do not see this as a particularly "Black thing." Money is more than a functional tool: It is also an emotional symbol. That is, if I give my kids a quarter to buy a gumball every time we go to the mall, that has more to do with my emotional self than any rational logic. I know that the 25 cents could be more properly saved for something more "meaningful" (.g., an educational book, my kids just learning the value of saving). But what trumps that are my feelings about being a kid and not being allowed to buy the bright shiny things in the big glass bubbles no matter how much I longed for them and wanting something different for my children (partly, perhaps, to vicariously make up for my childhood....)
That is how most folks react to money: it has a logical, objective component as well as a more emotional, irrational one. Because we Blacks as a group have less to begin with, the latter portion is probably going to take up a bigger proportion of our incomes/wealth than those who have more.
I don't think we can ever work the emotional part to zero, but we can and should work to acknowledge it and work to increase the logical part. It's kind of like some long-term treatments for overeating: A first step is often to get folks to realize that they often eat in response to how they are feeling (or want to feel) and not because they are hungry.
This is something I have been working hard to correct in my own life. (And with my kids!) But it is not easy and definitely does not happen overnight. On another thread I posted about a study and an organization that deals with kids and financial literacy. I think that "literacy" is a great metaphor and is the right way to go: How do we develop long-term solutions--re-training, actually--to help ourselves develop a different emotional reading of and relationship to money? |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1974
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 02:28 pm: |
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P.S. Thanks, Cynique! |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9308
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 02:47 pm: |
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Yvettep,
The problem is not your giving your kid a quarter to buy a gumball (btw: that's something I do to). The problem come with where and how much of the REST of your money you spend (or how much you charge to credit cards) while you're in the mall.
One of the simpliest yet most financially beneficial things that foks can do that most fear doing is budgeting in a way that allows for them to frivolously spend some of their money. But foks avoid budgeting because that requires they be accountable for what they're doing in ways and to a degree they'd rather not be.
There's PLENTY of information and help available to everyone, much of it free, to use to improve one's financial and economic prowess.
But I agree there are emotional components to what we do they we seldom acknowledge, much less attempt do anything about, even AFTER we've gotten into financial trouble.
I was watching a segment of Bryant Gumbel's Real Sports (HBO) that discussed New York Knick's basketball player Stephon Marbury endorsing gym shoes that retail for only $15. Marbury's trying to encourage mostly poor Black kids to not feel as though they have to spend $200 for gym shows. What was interesting is that several of the kids interviewed said they would NOT wear the shoes because others would know they only cost $15, that they feel a sense of pride and esteem when they wear the much more expensive gym shoes.
I don't really have an answer for this. I mean, I know it's a product of deeprooted feelings and desires to want to be considered important and valuable when, to a great degree, the world is declaring you're NOT such. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1978
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 03:08 pm: |
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ABM, I think I remember a while back you saying you try to do some of this kind of teaching informally through yur business. We had a thread a while back about Junior Achievement and I have been meaning to look into that more--both as a volunteer and for my kids when they get older. Ima put that on my list. (It's a long one LOL) |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9314
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 03:12 pm: |
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Yvettep,
I try to give foks pointers here and there. But getting foks to commit to putting together a budget and sticking to it is the problem. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4226
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 05:01 pm: |
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Is the is the same chrishayden who lambasts the black middleclass for being so concerned with material things?????
(We give up. Is it? (you doddering old fool!) |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4606
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 05:40 pm: |
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Yvette - I suggest you and your kids watch The Big Idea on MSNBC as well as Making It: Minority Success Stories on KTLA (if your cable system gets this Los Angeles channel) http://www.makingittv.com Both are shows about starting and succeeding in business.
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Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1986
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - 10:09 am: |
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Thanks! |
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