The Rat Race That I Know

The Wealth Totem Pole: Evaluating Urban Success in the USA

A race is happening below the surface of life, known as the rat race. It’s a prevailing idea that humans are navigating through a maze, and those who make it to the end will find happiness, wealth, and freedom. Growing up in a major city in the USA is like this. The people in government jobs and private sectors run the City and keep it wealthy or poor. If you’re living below the poverty level, you should ask yourself, where am I on the wealth totem pole in my current location? If it’s not where you want to be and it doesn’t satisfy your desire for wealth, happiness, and freedom, you may want to move.

“Using a sample of 12,000 households, in-depth interviews were conducted with a range of black and white families. The authors document ways in which economic barriers prevent blacks from acquiring wealth. These barriers include racially biased state and national social policies (including housing, employment and educational), limited access to capital, suburbanization and the growth of inner cities.

Oliver and Shapiro’s study found that racial wealth differences exist because of inequality reflected in three areas:

(1) disparities in human capital, sociological and labor market forces;

(2) institutional and political influences and

(3) factors contributing to the lack of the intergenerational transmission of assets and social mobility.

Book Reviews The authors insist that current social policies have serious implications for blacks in general and the black middle-class in particular. Policies based on income alone have failed to meet the needs of African-Americans because they underestimate the magnitude and scope of racial inequality that is based on wealth accumulation. Subsequently, the authors call for a massive refocusing of social policies that have prevented African-Americans, as a group, from accumulating wealth. These policies must provide asset formulation for people who William Julius Wilson calls the “truly disadvantaged”. Then, the country can begin to provide real equality among the races.”

~ Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro. Reviewed by Lolita Perkins, Louisiana State University.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Western Michigan University

Africa Renewal is a United Nations digital magazine that covers Africa’s economic, social, and political developments. According to 2014 estimates, more than 3,000 African Americans and people of Caribbean descent live in Ghana, a country of about 26 million people. Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to shake off colonial rule 58 years ago, has become the destination of choice for diasporans looking for a spiritual home and an ancestral connection. While some have gone through the emotional journey of tracing their families through DNA testing.

How is wealth kept from the Black community?

The U.S. inflation is increasing across all industries, including food, clothing, energy, and everyday essentials. Meanwhile, the legal minimum wage is barely keeping up. Large corporations in the private sector are providing minimal employee benefits, at-will agreements, and costly health care benefits. Local businesses are also hiring at this level, increasing workloads and cutting hours to maximize profits at the expense of fair employee compensation. In 2024, it takes more than one person’s income to maintain a household and pay utilities, childcare, and basic household needs. e.g. personal hygiene products, food, etc. The demands are high with immigrants from distressed countries, the rise in birth rate, and other factors.

The urban rat race in the USA is a relentless quest for wealth and freedom, often hindered by systemic economic barriers for black families. Gentrification and biased policies exacerbate inequality, pushing a “Buy Black” movement to retain community wealth, while creative hustles emerge as today’s wealth hacks. The majority believe it’s gentrification. Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and investment.

Many trade skills are no longer taught free in middle school and now students are expected to pay for vocations. e.g. carpentry, plumbing, electrician, welding, etc. Black people can no longer keep their doors open in mom-and-pop neighborhood stores because of supercenters with 26 aisles of merchandise. Black people reported a shift in wealth. Stating Black people are innovating away from those cornerstone businesses to music production companies, marketing, and brand identities. However, massive financing for cultural appropriation has robbed their efforts. Thus they developed the phrase “Buy Black”. This is to ensure the money remains in the community that created it. It could be an accumulation of all.

If you’re not planning on moving out of the country you might want to reevaluate another way to increase your wealth if you’re at a lower end of the totem pole. Having come from the lower end of the success ladder, I’ve discovered several ways to make this happen.