The Poor and Destitute

The destitute are living on the streets or tents. They are not paying rent of any sort. The poor vary in means depending on their respective country, and in America are getting government aid or low wage employment. Food, clothes and rent are among their top concerns, with taxes among the rural/inner city poor that live on low value property that they may own. I call this modern-day survival.

The destitute and poor will avoid discomfort to a certain extent, from building cardboard houses to ruining their credit to buy a car they can’t afford. I grew up poor but never destitute, and many were poorer or also were abused. You never really can avoid the discomfort of not having enough for survival, and just the threat of it causes discomfort. Most succumb to the hopelessness, but some make it the middle classes or on a rare occasion, become wealthy.

Wikipedia says the number of people either destitute or poor is at around 13.5%, or 43.1 million people in the US. These people are consumed productively with survival, and live off the scraps of the middle class to fulfill their needs of comfort. Many resort to crime. Some have a disability, and many are veterans of combat.

As for the incentive of growth for the poor, it may be nothing more than dreams. While there are some outliers (50 Cent, Tupac, Eminem, lottery winners), it is rare for someone to be plucked out of poverty and into the rich middle class for any meaningful period of time, and it is getting harder every day. Most likely is that an individual might reach into lower middle class or dip into poverty, only to return to their previous position, many times throughout one’s life.

The Middle Classes

The middle class have both upper and lower partitions, and are constantly getting squeezed smaller by the growth in poverty and disproportionate growth in assets of the wealthy and super rich. At least that is the trend in America’s most recent history. Few can argue that, in the grand scheme of things, middle class Americans or members of any first world country have it that bad, even at the bottom rungs. The further you go back in history, the larger the progress appears.

Middle class citizen can rent, own a home, have a business, a job, a personal vehicle, investments or any combination of the above. This is the working class, blue collar men and women that go to their jobs or small businesses each day and keep the economy moving. They comprise of roughly 80% of the US population, and a majority of the World’s population as well, so we will spend a little more time on this particular group of the population.

Depending on where a person might sit in the middle class, they could be just making a living, to almost being rich, but for the most part, all still feel the survival incentive. For good reason, as they could lose a job or business and drop to poverty, or lower middle class. A majority of the middle class must work for a living. They pay the bulk of the tax burden as they rarely have the political power to get special incentives and contracts from the government, or are employees, which get few tax write offs when compared to large corporations.

Avoiding discomfort is where the middle class truly shines. For them, an inconvenience is a discomfort, so they buy gadgets, goods, and services that take away those inconveniences. For those that resist some or all of those urges, they may rise the ranks of middle class and touch the blissful notches of wealth, never having to work for survival again. Achieving this stature in life serves the incentive for growth, in which the desire varies within each individual.

An individual in the middle class may work for a group or cause that also provides growth for them. They may even just support it with donations, the purchases they make or what they share online.

The Wealthy and Super Rich

The wealthy at about 7% and super rich are the 1% percent that you hear about, conservatively. They enjoy the best life has to offer – they don’t have to work, but many do. How else can you grow if you don’t work towards something.

When you become wealthy, you should have your money and earnings from investments if you want to stay that way. Inflation and taxes will kill you otherwise (or at least dent your ego a bit). You have either inherited your money, are old and have been saving high earnings for decades, or have a company that is making you money through your stock options. Any combination will work. Outliers like Mark Zuckerberg exist by creating one in a million companies or brands, a theory that has been proven and solidified in my thought by a well-written book I just finished reading called “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcom Gladwell.  You should definitely give it a read.

The wealthy and super rich may still have a survival instinct, but the raw incentive for immediate, modern day survival is long gone. Now, through some tragedy you may lose a portion or even all of your empire if it is new, but you would have to be a complete moron to go from wealthy to poor or from super rich to poor. Maybe over generations, but in a lifetime, it is highly unlikely. You might find your way into the middle class for some time, or permanently upper middle class like MC Hammer, but you are not going to be homeless.

To say, the rich have the luxury to focus on big concepts such as public policy, history, law, and industry. The primary incentives are growth and preservation of power. Lack of power makes them uncomfortable, or should, as power is what holds their wealth together.