• Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
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      19 days ago

      This really needs to be the top comment. This is engagement bait at best and just utter bullshit at the worst. Average means fuck all when you have billionaires.

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      That was exactly my first thought. The average is so heavily skewed by folks like Musk and Bezos that it’s basically useless as an economic marker.

  • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    To be fair, with the likes of Musk et al skewing the average, everyone except for a handful of such extreeeeeme outliers is worth less than the average American.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    TOP ASSETS 2017 House - Rental Room/House - Rental Room $375,000

    MN State Retirement System/MN Retirement assn $107,501

    https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/tim-walz/net-worth?cid=N00027467

    Tim Walz pulled $135,000 from his retirement savings last year to pay for his daughter’s college education. That would be a devastating blow to many Americans’ nest eggs—but not his.

    The 60-year-old vice presidential candidate’s pensions make him a throwback to a bygone era of American retirement savings. Even though he has fewer assets and investments than Republican rival JD Vance and many candidates for national office, his net worth doesn’t reflect the full value those pensions provide.

    It would likely take a 401(k) balance of about $1 million to buy an immediate annuity that could generate income similar to the couple’s pensions, according to annuity calculators. His campaign confirmed Walz’s withdrawal from a 401(k)-type plan, but declined to comment on his finances.

    “He has a good retirement fund. It’s not luxurious, but it’s designed for someone who has been a public servant for most of his life,” said Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was head of the White House ethics office under President George W. Bush.

    Pensions like the ones Walz accumulated as a teacher, soldier and elected official, aren’t an option for most Americans. In March 2023, 15% of the private sector workforce had access to a pension plan, versus 86% of state and local government workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/tim-walz-is-richer-than-his-net-worth-suggests/ar-AA1pfnh8

    regardless of how the paid off media puts it Tim Walz is not like us and our neighbors who are struggling under high inflation including high taxes with paychecks that are not living wages with no healthcare

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      19 days ago

      Because he has pensions? The entire point of pensions are to give working-class people the kind of income Tom Walz has right now. I’m going to vote for the candidates fighting for union rights and against the candidates who think employees who try to organize should be fired.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          19 days ago

          Ok doomer. My wife and I are both solidly millennials who bought a house in the 2010s for $230K then refinanced in 2021 at the lowest interest rate, so we have a very affordable payment. Interest rates will go back down again, and home prices in my city are well off their 2023 peak and continuing to trend down

        • compactblackhole@lemmy.world
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          19 days ago

          Um, no. Want a pension? Go work the jobs Tim did - generally federal workers, teachers railroad workers, postal employees, state employees, etc. have pensions and/or annuity plans.

    • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      lol this article is like blaming plastic straws for the climate crisis when billionaires go to their bathroom with an airplane

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Financial disclosures show Tim Walz barely has any assets to his name. No stocks, bonds, or even property to call his own. Together with his wife, Gwen, his net worth is $330,000, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal citing financial disclosures from 2019, the year after he became Minnesota governor.

    With that kind of meager nest egg, he would be more or less in line with the median figure for Americans his age (he’s 60), and even poorer than the average. One in 15 Americans is a millionaire, a recent UBS wealth report discovered.

    Read more: Tim Walz’s leadership resonates with my country’s Viking Code. Here’s why that matters

    Meanwhile, the gross annual income of Walz and his wife, Gwen, amounted to $166,719 before tax in 2022, according to their joint return filed that same year. Walz is even entitled to earn more than the $127,629 salary he receives as state governor, but he has elected not to receive the roughly $22,000 difference.

    “Walz represents the stable middle class,” tax lawyer Megan Gorman, who authored a book on the personal finances of U.S. presidents, told the paper.

    he is worth $330,000 and he makes combined with his wife $166,719

    that is way more than most people know such as the skilled plumbers know who make $13 an hour for a skilled trades job

    Walz USED to be the average middle class US citizen but sadly the US has either poor or rich with the middle class gutted to almost extinction

    teachers are not even making a third of Walz’s worth in this country

    fuck Walz, fuck Harris, and fuck Trump and fuck their donors for taking over our country

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      19 days ago

      Having a net worth of $330K only means you’re an older person who owns a house and has paid at least most of it off. Also there isn’t a single plumber who’s worth their salt who’s making $13/hr, my man. Either your friends are awful at their work or you’re lying

      • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        in the South that is still a high paying job at $13 an hour

        why don’t you ring some digits and find out

        some places down here do pay more of course such as a Wal-mart stocker at about $17 but the daytime employees there still make less than that and some plumbing companies do pay more here around some close to Wal-mart pay but you have to drive farther out to find those which eats into maintenance/gas

        sources: patrons that are in front of my counter at work a lot more are open to talk about how much they make than you would imagine maybe it is just because of my job

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          19 days ago

          I want the US government to have your friends’ backs when they want to unionize and bargain for higher wages and a pension, which is why I’m voting Harris/Walz

    • KillerTofu@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Oh yeah, Trump and Walz are interchangeable. Totally the same guy with the same morals.

      Ass.

      • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        damn right they are just like when they teamed up to stop the protesters of the line 3 pipeline

        Walz used the funds Trump provided through some federal program he did and together they upped the police budget to manhandle those protesters

        Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has not taken a firm stance on the pipeline expansion, which received federal approval under the Trump administration.[18][23]

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Line_3_protests