To put the following into context with Canada:
In June/July this year, it was reported that the *average* Canadian household net-worth was $363,000, while in the US the average was $320,000.
The disparity gets worse for the US when we look at the median numbers.
In 2005, the *median* assets of Canadian families was $229,930 and the median debt was $44,500. Their median net worth was $148,350, 23.2% higher than in 1999. (I've reported here in the past that a higher percentage of Canadians fully own their own homes vs americans).
So the AVERAGE Canadian household net worth is 13% higher than the average US household net worth.
Looking at the median US household net-worth in the years 2004 ($89.9k),
2007 ($107.8K) and 2010 ($57k) and extrapolating that to get a number for 2005 ($95.9k).So the MEDIAN Canadian household net worth was 54% higher than the median US household net worth in 2005. That is a huge disparity, but one can only imagine how bad it is now given the toilet-dump your economy took in 2008.
Since residential property values DID NOT crash in Canada in 2008 (indeed - it has instead appreciated moderately in the 7 years since
2005) if we compare the Canadian median in 2005 with the US median in 2010 (assuming NO growth in the Canadian median in the past 7 years) we get this absolutely appalling fact:The MEDIAN Canadian household net worth is *2.6 times* that of the median US household net worth (based on 2005 and 2010 data).
These numbers indicate that as you well know, there is a very small "super-class" of americans with high income and high net-worth that skews your average values (average income, average net worth) and the real story is in the median numbers. That "super-class" controls your country and is driving the current recession - to their benefit.
These numbers should now illustrate why the American Dream is alive and well -> in Canada.
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WASHINGTON (CBS DC) ? The median net worth of American households has dropped to a 43-year low as the lower and middle classes appear poorer and less stable than they have been since 1969.
According to a recent study by New York University economics professor Edward N. Wolff, median net worth is at the decades-low figure of $57,000 (in 2010 dollars). And as the numbers in his study reflect, the situation only appears worse when all the statistics are taken as a whole.
- which is otherwise known as ?debt.?
Over that same period of time, the wealthiest 1 percent of American households increased their average wealth by 71 percent.
As noted by Daily Finance, from 1983 to 2010 the share of total wealth held by the richest 10 percent of American households increased from
68.2 percent to 76.7 percent. Meanwhile, all the rest of Americans lost financial ground.Fully 85 percent of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living. Of those who feel this way, 62 percent say ?a lot? of the blame lies with Congress, while 54 percent say the same about banks and financial institutions, 47 percent about large corporations, 44 percent about the Bush administration, 39 percent about foreign competition and 34 percent about the Obama administration.
Just 8 percent put ?a lot? of blame on the middle class itself.
?This downbeat take on their economic situation comes at the end of a decade in which, for the first time since the end of World War II, mean family incomes declined for Americans in all income tiers,? the Pew Report stated. ?But the middle-income tier?defined in this Pew Research analysis as all adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median ?is the only one that also shrunk in size, a trend that has continued over the past four decades.?
Wolff?s focus on total wealth not only measures how much money a household brings in, but also the amount it accumulates. This latter number is very significant ? economically secure households are generally more comfortable spending their disposable income, and are less likely to become a drag on the social safety net.