2010/09/09/Why the Rich Need the Poor

title/short::Why the Rich Need the Poor Average annual spending by consumers with incomes over $100,000, for example, is about $101,000, according to government data. Consumers with incomes below $70,000 spend only about $34,000 per year. But there are four times as many consumers in that lower income group than in the higher one, and overall, their spending is a lot bigger. Here's a breakdown:
 * when: when posted::2010/09/09
 * author: author::Rick Newman
 * source: site::US News
 * topics: topic::economic disparity/US
 * keywords
 * link: URL::http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2010/09/09/why-the-rich-need-the-poor
 * title: title::Why the Rich Need the Poor
 * summary: They’d like to think otherwise, but the rich won’t recover until the rest of America does, too.
 * Total annual spending for consumers with incomes below $70,000: $2.8 trillion
 * For consumers with incomes over $100,000: $2.1 trillion
 * For consumers with incomes over $150,000 (a subset of the group above): $1 trillion.

The spending that powers the economy, in other words, comes mostly from the middle and lower class, not from the wealthy. BMWs and Mercedes might give the economy luster, but Fords and Chevys make it hum.