Are You In The Top 3% Of Retirees? Here's The Shockingly Low Amount You Need Saved To Rank Among The Richest

[Mike 03]

10. Yes, this is the statistic Katie Phang used about a week

ago. It's tricky. She was actually being fairer to use the median than the average, but both fail to capture the reality of most Americans. In Reverend Dr. William Barber's new book "White Poverty" he argues that the true number of Americans living in poverty is about 140 million, or about 43%, who he defines as people or families who could not afford to meet their monthly financial obligations were they to have a $400 unforeseen emergency.

I happen to think that is a brilliant and much more honest definition of poverty than the index we currently use (and have used for decades). Parenthetically, he argues the bulk of the 90 million Americans eligible to vote but who do not are in this group.