Semi-Skim

   When one hears the term 1% or 2% here in the U.S., one tends to think of milk since whole milk is 4% fat and you then have 2%, 1% and fat free (or what we would call "skim" milk).  But these days, hearing those terms in the U.S. now makes one also think of the wealthy, or in the case of the 1% the super-wealthy.  See if you can guess where this comment comes from: For guys who are well past middle age, keeping healthy needs to be respected.  We have two employees who take care of stretching us, massaging us.  We have a chef.  We stay in comfortable hotels.  There's private plane travel.  We don't tour in more than two-week increments, so we go home and see our families, recharge our batteries.  Touring like this is not financially efficacious, but if we didn't tour like this, we wouldn't tour.  Those words come from Lars Ulrich, drummer for the aging heavy metal band, Metallica.  But as many millions as they might have, they're still not in the 2% group, not with the likes of the Derek Jeter/Jeb Bush (brother of former U.S. President, George W.) crowd which just partnered with other investors to buy a baseball team; or even the son-in-law of our current President who stands to make a cool $400 million if his Manhattan real estate deal with a Chinese insurance company goes ahead as planned (yes, this is one of the questionable deals making the news that allows people to buy their EB-5 visas for "just" $500,000 and in return possibly earn permanent residency in the U.S.).  And then you have the 1%, those who's fortunes leave even that crowd wishing and hoping.  But no matter that for there's yet another group, the 20%; and what's somewhat scary is that all this poo-poohing of the rich & wealthy might be coming from what author Richard Reeves describes as Dream Hoarders (the title of his new book): Too often...this obsession with the upper class allows the upper middle class to convince ourselves we are in the same boat as the rest of America; but it is not true.  Think of it as a wagon train, with five cars.  The front wagon has pulled away, but those last four basically remain in the same relation to one another,  To put it really bluntly, the poor have not fallen behind the middle class. Everyone has fallen behind the upper middle class.

    Laurie Abraham reviewed the book for ELLE and had to question her own seemingly innocent position...her home that has doubled in value, her child in private school, her mortgage deduction from her taxes: Because the more affluent are more likely to own a home and can afford pricier homes, they --we-- get the bulk of this payback from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service).  Specifically, for every dollar of mortgage tax deduction that goes to people in the last car of the train, according to Reeves, about $100 goes to those in the first.  The benefits to the already socioeconomically elevated are endless: My large brownstone allows me to arrange free vacation home swaps with people all over the globe.  Because I charge thousands of dollars of ordinary purchases --food, transit, kids' clothes-- to my credit card each month, I "make" money in the form of points that I can put toward flights for these vacation swaps... 

    This 20% is defined by author Reeves as those earning $120k annually, a stratospheric level of money to my wife and I.  Yet even if we are nowhere near that income level I couldn't help feeling a tinge of reviewer Abraham's guilt.  The recent partial paralysis of our dog caused us to search all over for what could possibly help, from slings to help lift her up to mobility wheelchairs that would help her go for walks (we ordered one); her condition also meant spending much more time with her as the vet put her on steroids to try and reduce any inflammation and one of the side effects is incontinence (we bought washable pads).  I sleep on the floor with the dogs in another room as our dog now has to be helped out more often for the bathroom (generally at 2 am) which means that my wife and I are growing short with one another as I turn into a grump.  Errands get postponed, schedules get changed, calls don't get returned.  But despite all of this, both of us recognize that we are lucky.  For one, we can come closer to empathizing with those who have it really difficult, who have a child with cerebral palsy or an aging parent with advanced dementia.  Ask them about reading a book or watching a movie in their spare time?  Ha!  What spare time?  Time left over is rare and precious and is usually saved for sleep from exhaustion, a luxury since what awaits upon awakening is little more than planning for another day of the same.  Life is short, but for many caregivers, life is even shorter. 

    My wife and I have freedom in many ways.  We are able to change our plans and to stay with our dogs as they heal and to buy a doggie wheelchair if we wish.  We don't make $120,000 a year which still sounds like a lot to us, and so we're likely not in that group of upper middle class.  So what are we?  Maybe lower middle upper, or upper middle lower, or Billy Bob & Lou...who cares?  So we're not the 1% or 2%, or apparently the 20%, but we're in a group that we consider fortunate.  We have enough, not plenty, but enough. We still have each other, and our moms and our dogs and cats.  And when one of them is injured, we have the ability and health to take care of them.  What else could we want?  To be in that elite upper, upper, upper?  Perhaps we as a collective should just stop trying to put everyone in a slot or naming them as a percent of something or roping them into some upper, lower, middle division.  People are people and some have it better and some have it worse.  How each of us chooses to help (or not help) is what makes the world go round, but it pretty much all ends the same.  With our dog now mostly paralyzed, our focus is on little else but trying to get her better or at least more comfortable; little else matters.  Dr. Nick Trout summed in up with a Swedish phrase describing the life of a dog...you have three years of young dog, three years of good dog, and three years of old dog; the rest is a blessing from God.  Multiply that by ten and you've pretty much described human life...1%, 2% or skim.