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Mass affluent are political and economic target
USA Today has an article calling the mass affluent the new rich. This relabeling seems to be spinning it so that this group is a suitable target for redistribution (ie higher taxes). The mass affluent generally do not consider themselves to be rich and have just executed the lifeplan that all financial people tell people to follow.
They tell people
- get a good education
- get a good job
- save your money for retirement and college for your kids
About 20% get to some degree of success. Although even if they save 1 million
Fully 20% of U.S. adults become rich for parts of their lives, wielding outsize influence on America's economy and politics. Made up largely of older professionals, working married couples and more educated singles. The “new rich” are those with household income of $250,000 or more at some point during their working lives. That puts them, if sometimes temporarily, in the top 2% of earners.
Even outside periods of unusual wealth, members of this group generally hover in the $100,000-plus income range, keeping them in the top 20% of earners.
In a country where poverty is at a record high, today's new rich are notable for their sense of economic fragility. They're reached the top 2%, only to fall below it, in many cases. That makes them much more fiscally conservative than other Americans, polling suggests, and less likely to support public programs, such as food stamps or early public education, to help the disadvantaged.
The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) has a retirement calculator. Entering in 1.06 million in savings at retirement means that even with social security for a husband and wife they drop to just under $100,000 per year in retirement income. The $1 million savings level is what many are targeting.
Obama signals more efforts to redistribute out of the mass affluent
Last week, President Obama asserted that growing inequality is “the defining challenge of our time,” signaling that it will be a major theme for Democrats in next year's elections.
New research suggests that affluent Americans are more numerous than government data depict, encompassing 21% of working-age adults for at least a year by the time they turn 60. That proportion has more than doubled since 1979.
Source: http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/12/mass-affluent-are-political-and.html
