Two very interesting commentaries.
-
We African Americans need to immediately get
our
poor self images
under
control and begin to realize that shiny
new
trinkets (BMW's Benz's,
Lexus's, SUV's, etc.) do not fool
anybody
but
financially ignorant
unaware
people who do not understand the
meaning
of
Wealth (NET WORTH).
This
insatiable desire that we have to
impress
other people with
materialism
is crazy. It is not
what we ride in, wear, or live in, that
determines wealth.
It is
what
we are worth after subtracting debts
from
assets. 
(The only problem
is
that our net worth can't be seen, and
we
MUST
be SEEN). Our
Mickey-mouse egos DEMAND IT.
The majority of wage slaves, yes we are
slaves if we HAVE TO WORK FOR
A
LIVING, can't accumulate substantial
wealth
by spending large sums of
money on trinkets that depreciate in
value.
If any of us don't think
that we are wage slaves, QUIT YOUR JOB.
It
is imperative that WAGE
SLAVES live below their means and
invest
in
the stock market for the
long term. ANY WAGE
SLAVE who makes a decent salary can
become a
millionaire in his/her
lifetime.
It is very, very, simple -
don't
buy luxury cars,
expensive
clothes, houses we can't afford, and
expensive finishings for the
house,
until your financial portfolio is
sufficient
enough so that you don't
have to WORK for a LIVING unless you
want
too.
If our egos won't allow us to ride
around
in
a Camry, Honda, etc.,
than
buy a 2 year-old luxury car - cars
depreciate
by 25-35 percent in a
2-year period and still have relatively
low
miles.
Only the people
that
know us will ever know that we didn't
pay
FULL PRICE for the TRINKET.
Any wage slave that earns a good salary
can
become a millionaire over
a
20-30 year period.
Maybe if we can
change
our ways, in the future we
can, start bragging about our
PORTFOLIOS
AND
HOW MANY MILLIONS WE ARE
WORTH. 
This in no way reflects on us as a whole, but it is widely known that this situation does exist and should not.
Peace,
Nice PORSCHE.
Destination: NoWhere, FAST.
Wealth Management
Robert W. Whiting, MBA - Finance &
Investments
Sharing The Wealth Is Not Enough By
Courtland
Milloy
Sunday, September 19, 1999; Page C01
The recent pledge by Microsoft Corp.
Chairman
Bill Gates to spend $1
billion over the next 20 years for
minority
scholarships sounds
great.
But the news also reminded me of
another
not-so-cool story about
Gates
and the wealth gap between blacks and
whites
in America.
It was
published last year in the New
York-based
Journal of Blacks in Higher
Education with a headline that read,
"Bill
Gates Has More Securities
Wealth Than Do All Black American
Households
Combined."
These two
stories leave me with mixed feelings
about
Bill and his big bucks. On
one hand, Gates's financial gesture is
incredibly generous. Tens of
thousands more minorities will get a
chance
to go to college than
would
have otherwise.
William H. Gray III, president of the
United
Negro College Fund,
ought
to be applauded for helping Gates
understand
that the problem of
educational access is often not lack of
aspirations or lack of talent
"but just money."
On the other hand,
the
fact
that one white man can
possess more securities wealth than all
33
million African Americans
combined suggests something so
wrong that it's going to take much more
than
a billion dollars' worth
of schooling opportunities to fix it.
Based on calculations made by the
Journal,
using figures culled from
the Standard & Poors Index, Gates's
wealth
from securities, stocks
and
bonds was about $58 billion in 1998.
Black
wealth from stocks and
bonds
was calculated at about $11 billion.
"Black incomes are about 60 percent of
whites, but the wealth gap
between the races is enormous," said
Theodore
Cross, editor of the
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
and
author of the 1969 book
"Black Capitalism."
In another book, "Black
Wealth/White Wealth: A New
Perspective on Racial Inequality,"
authors
Melvin L. Oliver and
Thomas
M. Shapiro note that the
continuation of systemic barriers--such
as
limited access to capital,
redlining practices and the making of
the
urban ghetto--has impaired
the
ability of many blacks to accumulate
wealth
and find a better life.
I
hope that Gates's goodwill does not
overshadow this disturbing
economic
reality.
His plan calls for sending at least
1,000
high school seniors a year
to
the colleges of their choice. And he
has
vowed to extend the money to
those students who plan on pursuing
advanced
degrees in fields such
as
math, science and education. Great.
Maybe
the
first black Bill Gates
will be among them. But consider this:
Blacks
have been graduating
from
college in significant
numbers for many years, at least 10,000
from
the nation's 25 top
business schools during the past 25
years.
And yet, the number of
black
CEOs and others who have share
ownership
or
stock-option rights,
especially in big-money-making
high-tech
companies, is almost
nonexistent.
Blacks have had no role to
play
in the creation and
ownership of any Internet-related
companies.
And that's where the big
bucks are.
Most high-tech companies
have
no
blacks on their boards of
directors.
"Affirmative action
practices
of
traditional American
corporations have not even touched the
consciousness of the high-tech
entrepreneurs," Cross said.
According to Oliver and Shapiro, the
average
white blue-collar worker
has been able to accumulate more wealth
than
the average black
professional, in part because of this
nation's legacy of racism.
"Clearly, there are many reasons why
black
people have little access
to
the network society where much of the
new
wealth is now lodged,"
Cross
said.
"But a big factor is that almost
nobody
makes loans or provides
venture capital to black business
start-ups."
According to the National Bureau of
Economic
Research, 65.9 percent
of
all small business loan applications
made
by
African Americans are
turned down.
This is compared with a
denial
rate of 26.9 percent of
small business loan applications made
by
whites.This is
unconscionable.
But the question is, shouldn't African
Americans be doing more than
just
complaining?
The latest U.S. Census Bureau figures
on
American wealth showed that
only 614,000 black households, or 5.6
percent, owned stocks or mutual
fund shares. So who is preventing us
from
investing our money?
Certainly
nobody is stopping us from spending
like
crazy.
A 1996 issue of Black
Enterprise magazine reported that
blacks
spend $19.6 billion a year
on
clothes and $10.8 billion a year on
cars
and
trucks, some of the
fastest
depreciating items you can buy.
Only
$3.1
billion goes for education.
African Americans spend nearly $3.2
billion a
year just on booze and
other beverages.
Even in some of the
poorest
black neighborhoods in
urban areas across the country,
especially in
Washington, residents
manage to spend as much as $3 million a
month
just on fast food.
All
we'd have to do to match Gates's
historic
scholarship fund is give up
one drink and a chicken box or Big Mac
a
week, then pass the savings
on
to the United Negro College Fund.
Will
we
do
it?
Don't hold your
breath.
Even as we thank Bill Gates for helping
to
send our kids to college,
we'd do well to ask ourselves what kind
of
education will it take for
us
to start doing for ourselves.
RIGHT ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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