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Blacks and Latinos Will Be Broke in a Few Decades
Many people see progress on racial equity in the U.S. as a steady march forward, in which people of color become more equal with their white counterparts as the years go by.
Those are people who don’t pay attention to household wealth figures.
A new report I co-authored, “The Road to Zero Wealth,” looks at the past 30 years of wealth accumulation across racial lines, as well as what the future will bring if current trends continue. Our findings were bleak.
The divide between the wealth of a typical black family and a typical white family today is vast. A median black family has just $1,700 in wealth—total assets minus total debt. Thirty years ago, that same family had $6,800 in today’s dollars. Latino families at the median have similarly small assets, just $2,000, and also saw a decline over the past three decades. (Read more)
