Nicholas R. Frazier

In James D. Scurlock’s eerily prescient 2007 book, “Maxed Out,” the author observed:

It is time to create a new metric in order to judge how many middle-class Americans are joining the ranks of the poor. … If we are to honestly measure how the middle class is holding up, we must add increasingly costly essentials like housing, insurance, and health care to the mix.

Reading that made me wonder myself, am I poor?

Looking around me, it seems obvious that the answer is no.  If you accept the dictionary definition of poor, i.e. “lacking material possessions,” then no, I’m not poor.  I’m typing this on a MacBook.  I watched the weather report this morning on my flat screen HDTV.  Later, I’ll get in my paid-for Subaru Outback and go buy a book and a coffee.  No I’m not lacking in material possessions, so according to Noah Webster, I’m not poor.

But what about a more relative definition?  Say, net worth.

The good folks at CNNMoney.com tell me the following about my age and income bracket (circa 2009):

I made some guesstimates on my money going out, using Scurlock’s housing-insurance-healthcare trifecta, to which I’d add student loans and a few other debts.  Then I looked at my assets.  A little quick and dirty math, and voilà:

Yes, that’s a negative sign.  I’m worth negative one hundred twenty-two thousand.  Of course, if I were to keel over today, my student loans would be forgiven (well, my federal ones would be.  I’m not sure about the private loans).  So, as they say, I’m worth more dead than alive.

But getting back to the question at hand … I’m probably ‘poor’ when compared to other people in my age and income range.

And the dictionary definition of ‘poor’ is obviously too simplistic.  Again quoting Scurlock’s book, who in turn quotes Lloyd Bentsen, “If you let me write $200 billion worth of hot checks every year … I could give you the illusion of prosperity too.”  On a smaller scale, if I had no possessions, then signed up for a dozen credit cards and began living a life of debt-fed luxury, does that mean I’m no longer bereft?  I don’t think so.

I do have material possessions.  I also have a mountain of debt.  If those debts were to be called in today, pretty soon I’d no longer have material possessions–they’d have been repossessed or seized by the sheriff and sold on the courthouse steps.  My surroundings are a mere illusion, then.

So … am I poor?  (Or is America poor, and I’m just average?  But that’s another question for another time.)

What is that line in “It’s A Wonderful Life” about not being poor as long as you have friends?

Link: CNNMoney Net Worth Calculator

Link: CNNMoney Net Worth – How Do You Stack Up?

Link: Maxed Out – Movie Site