Net worth of U.S. households skyrockets
 

What can one say? US citizens are better off than they were before.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070308/...old_finances_1

Yep, you might say that. I don't follow the debt trend though. I carry only one CC with debt that I don't plan to ever pay off if I can help it. Its at 1% interest percent from Amex. That is free money in my book. Leaving your money in the bank can make your more money than paying it! Just have to play the game is all and they probably hate me over it since they cancelled the card.

How it works is this - they send you little checks in the mail, and you can transfer other accoutn balances to it at only 1% interest - so you go get the stuff you want, charge it to one card, and then pay it off with those checks via balance transfer. The fine print on it is this though - if you use that particular AMex card, you get locked into 12.99% on that purchase, and all payments towards the card go to the 1% checks only - not the high interest 12.99 and you must pay off your 1% stuff before you can pay off the 12.99% part - this is supposed to make AMex rich this way. So, to win, you just never use the Amex card! You carry what is pretty much a free debt, never get locked into the 12.99 part by using the card, and Amex will get ticked at you and close your card due to inactivity!!! Win win for you!

Sorry about the rant, but I like sticking it to the CC companies instead of them doing it to me. CC's are evil though. Don't ever keep a balance on them unless you like to be poor - unless you run across something like I do above.

-S

Umm, I'm not sure how this one statistic makes that argument, at least from a political angle, but OK. :roll:

No politics involved. A news report, nothing more, nothing less.

In statistics, a mean value alone is worth nothing. The question is not so much how much wealth there is if all is added together. The question is how it is distributed. Googling this, I found many statistics basing on data from 1983, 2001 and 2004. I just link to two of them.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesam...er/wealth.html

And this one I also give, I found the data it expresses and presents so clearly, being mirrored by more "academical" sites as well (or better said: the clear graphics in this linik mirrors their data).

http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/fac...ome&wealth.htm

Let's also mention that the majority of circulating dollars are outside the US, that the US is world record holder in national deficits, and that if China would decide to get rid of it'S dollar reserves this would be a doomsday scenario for the US as a global economical and financial actor. What we have seen two weeks ago was a very, very minor warning signal.

The increasing spreading between the rich and the poor is no exclusive US phenomenon. It is happening in Europe in general and Germany in special as well. On the global scale, some weeks ago the following formula circulated through world medias: the globe's top 1% of population owns more than 50% of the golobe's wealth. Whereas roughly the lower half (50%) of global population owns only 1% of the global wealth. This trend is increasing in contrast worldwide. Hardly a sign for a well-functioning system.

Would some of that "skyrocketing" come my way? K, thanks! :roll:

It's skyrocketing everywhere but Connecticut.

Check Fairfield county.

If this was a 'fair and equitable' world your argument may have some value. If someone told you that it was a 'fair and equitable' world you were lied to. Redistribution of wealth is a recipe for disaster and I think you know it. There have always been the very wealthy and the very poor. Punishing people for working hard in their field is not 'fair and equitable'.

Over all the report indicates that US citizens are better off financially than they have been in the past. The fringes will always exist.

How comfortable. How easy.

The truth always has a simplicity to it.

... but not every simplicity is true.

In this instance it is.

we have the 0% for 12 months so you can just keep switching the balance over each year to a new card. I don't have too mcuh CC debt but this helps as I don't have to worry that the debt is getting bigger. Will be paid off soon though.

I have 0% credit card debt, 0% car payment debt, I have title to my Audi, My only debt is my mortgage. As all you home owners know all the interest is tax deductable. I haven't always lived within my means, I was young once, and wanted gov't and special interests to take care of me.

As I grew older and my eyes were opened I saw that hoping for the intervention of the gov't was not desirable, it wants too much in return, and I took responsibility for myself. Yes, it takes some work and delving into the details but since its my life, I was willing to do the work.