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| New data map from here |
The numbers I came up with are from 2012, which isn’t very
satisfying, but there you go.* [I found the information here.] Anyway, I’ve listed the top 1% in each
state, from least to most. I also wondered about median income (per household)
by state and various questions about the relationship between the top and the
middle.
So here’s the data, followed by a couple of comments. (Delta
is the difference between the top 1% and the median family income. The ratio is
the top 1% divided by the median family income for that state.)
Top 1% $300,000 or under Median
in state Delta Ratio Top
1%/Median
1.
Idaho $274,000 $45,489 $228,511 6.0
2.
Montana $280,000 $45,076 $234,924 6.2
3.
Arkansas $283,000 $40,112 $242,888 7.0
4.
New Mexico $286,000 $42,558 $243,442 6.7
5.
Wyoming $295,000 $54,901* $240,099 5.4*
6.
Alabama $299,000 $41,574 $257,426 7.2
7.
South Carolina $300,000 $43,107 $256,893 7.0
Above $300,000 up to $400,000 Median
in state Delta Ratio Top
1%/Median
8.
West Virginia $304,000 $40,196 $263,804 7.6
9.
Indiana $307,000 $46,974 $260,026 6.5
10. Mississippi $309,000 $37,095* $271,905 8.3*
11. Kentucky $311,000 $41,724 $269,276 7.5
12. Iowa $316,000 $50,957 $265,043 6.2
13. Maine $322,000 $46,709 $275,291 6.9
14. Nebraska $329,000 $50,723 $278,277 6.5
15. Wisconsin $334,000 $51,059 $282,941 6.5
16. Ohio $334,000 $46,829 $287,171 7.1
17. Oklahoma $335,000 $44,312 $290,688 7.6
18. Missouri $335,000 $45,321 $289,679 7.4
19. Louisiana $335,000 $42,944 $292,056 7.8
20. Hawaii $337,000 $66,259* $270,741 5.1
21. Tennessee $338,000 $42,764 $295,236 7.9
22. North
Carolina $338,000 $45,150 $292,850 7.5
23. Arizona $339,000 $47,826 $291,174 7.1
24. Delaware $339,000 $58,415 $280,585 5.8*
25. Michigan $340,000 $46,859 $293,141 7.3
26. Nevada $340,000 $49,760 $290,240 6.8
27. Utah $340,000 $57,049 $282,951 6.0
28. Oregon $342,000 $49,161 $292,839 7.0
29. Vermont $349,000 $52,977 $296,023 6.6
30. Kansas $351,000 $50,241 $300,759 7.0
31. South
Dakota $352,000 $48,362 $303,638 7.3
32. Alaska $354,000 $67,712* $286,288 5.2
33. Rhode
Island $359,000 $54,554 $304,446 6.6
34. Georgia $365,000 $47,209 $317,791 7.7
35. Florida $367,000 $45,040 $321,791 8.1*
36. New
Hampshire$375,000 $63,280* $311,720 5.9
37. Washington $378,000 $57,573 $320,427 6.6
38. Pennsylvania $387,000 $51,223 $335,777 7.6
39. Texas $391,000 $50,740 $340,260 7.7
Above $400,000 Median
in state Delta Ratio Top
1%/Median
40. Colorado $406,000 $56,765 $349,235 7.2
41. California $433,000 $58,328 $374,672 7.4
42. Minnesota $408,000 $58,906 $349,094 6.9
43. Illinois $413,000 $55,137 $357,863 7.5
44. Virginia $433,000 $61,741* $371,259 7.0
45. Maryland $435,000 $71,122* $363,878 6.1
46. North
Dakota $455,000 $53,585 $401,415 8.5*
47. New
York $511,000 $56,448 $454,552 9.1*
48. Massachusetts $499,000 $65,339* $433,661 7.6
49. New
Jersey $504,000 $69,667* $434,333 7.2
50. Connecticut $642,000 $67,276* $574,724 9.5*
51. DC $688,000 $66,583* $621,417 10.3*
I marked the
median state level for top 1% (as many states below and above); it’s $340,000,
which is the actual top1% for three states. The range of top 1%-ers goes from a
low of $274,000 in Idaho, up to $688,000 in Washington, DC (not even a state,
but an expensive US place to live).
Doing some
math fun, I notice that the range of 1%-ers from the lowest to median is only
$66,000. The range from the median to the high is $348,000. So I wondered,
where does $66,000 above the median land; I’m sure you were wondering that very
thing. That’s $406,000, right where Colorado is. Forty states fit within this
range. I’m thinking, then, that states that don’t fit within $66,000 of the
median are outliers, exceptions. There are ten states plus DC in this group. California
plus the DC to New York/Connecticut corridor, with North Dakota randomly tossed
in.
My chart
also shows median income for all the states. I wanted to see if regular people
have to make more in the same states as the top 1% need more income to reach
their top status. There’s some correlation. Forty-five states have median
household incomes under $60,000 a year. Those that don’t are all among the
outliers requiring high incomes for their top 1%.
There are a
couple of lower outliers as well. Mississippi has the lowest median income, at $37,095,
while it ranks tenth lowest for its 1%-ers; even with that low 1%-er ranking,
the top earn 8.3 times what the median family earns.
Wyoming has
a midrange median family income of $54,901, while ranking fifth for its
1%-ers. So cost of living is low, and it
doesn’t take that much to get to the top. (Go into oil, except when it’s at $50
a barrel, like now.) And then you have a place like Hawaii, with a relatively
low rank for 1%-ers, but a surprisingly high $66,259 for median family income—high
cost of living, but not so much harder to reach the top.
In general,
it takes a lot of money to live in the coastal bastions of “progressivism.” And
apparently a lot of people make good money in North Dakota as well—maybe
because of the oil boom there. (Again, the data is from 2012—with boom underway
and no oil price slump yet.)
What the
chart doesn’t tell us is what lifestyle looks like for the top 1% and the
median family. I looked at the ratio to see how many years it would take a median
family to earn what a top 1% family earns in a year. That tells us a little
about disparity, but not everything.
Look at my
state of Texas. There’s opportunity to get into the top 1% (it’s within $66,000
of the median states’ top 1% range), but the standard of living for the median
family in Texas is pretty good. It’s not an outlier with a 7.7 ratio, but it
does seem to have a relatively high disparity, if you don’t know that a median
family might be buying a house in the suburbs. In Connecticut, it takes the
median family 9.5 years to make what the top 1% make in a year—and the cost of
living (made worse by taxes) leaves the median family probably hopeless about
home buying.
As for the
dinner conversation—I admit I was low-balling the estimate for top 1% earners. Mea culpa. But I was right in that the
top 1% are pretty nearly regular people, probably living in nice suburban
homes, maybe with some extra property. They could be business owners, or maybe
professionals who’ve had time to build up their business over some decades. But they aren't what most of us think of as "filthy rich." They
might have more freedom to travel and invest than many. But they’re not
casually buying numerous mansions and yachts and private jets.
If you think
the top 1% are multi-millionaires (by income every year), then you’re mistaking
them for the top .1% (1 per thousand) . Or maybe the top .01% (one per ten
thousand). There aren’t that many of those, no matter how many you see in
media. And even if you confiscate all the wealth from all those super-high
earners, you don’t lift standard of living nearly as well as those people can
by hiring and spending on their own.
So, re-read
the Ten Commandments, and notice that one about “Thou shalt not covet” (also here). Let go
of class envy and the associated false misperceptions. And trust that there is
enough abundance in the world and to spare for all who follow the principles of
freedom, prosperity, and civilization.
* PS: This
evening, while looking for something graphic to go with this post (which I used above), I find that
CNN put out a story today with some updated data. I’m not
going to redo my math, since that wasn’t my point. Suffice it to say, what
growth there has been since 2012 has been top heavy. Where there was disparity,
there’s now more. It’s more pronounced where “progressives” enact their
policies.
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