Pfeffer Fabian T, Schoeni Robert F
Institute for Social Research and assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan.
Institute for Social Research and professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan.
RSF. 2016 Oct;2(6):2-22. doi: 10.7758/rsf.2016.2.6.01. Epub 2016 Nov 16.
Liz, Mary, and Howard are three teenagers in the 1980s. Although unrelated, their families have much in common: stable two- parent households, at least one parent completed high school (though none of them went to college), and all three are white. They differ in one important aspect: their parents command quite different levels of wealth (here measured as net worth, that is, the total sum of financial and real assets minus debt). Liz's parents own less than $700 (inflation adjusted to 2013 dollars), meaning that Liz grows up at the bottom of the wealth distribution. Still, she is far from living in poverty thanks to her parents' annual income of about $50,000. Mary's parents have a somewhat higher income, about $70,000, but also markedly more wealth than Liz's parents: their net worth of roughly $60,000 puts them at about the national median of the time. Also unlike Liz's parents, they are homeowners. Howard is lucky enough to grow up in affluence. Not in terms of income, given that his parents have a household income of only about $40,000, but they have considerable wealth. With a net worth of nearly a quarter million dollars, Howard's parents are in the top 20 percent of wealth holders. They, too, own their home.
莉兹、玛丽和霍华德是20世纪80年代的三名青少年。尽管他们毫无血缘关系，但他们的家庭有很多共同之处：父母家庭稳定，至少有一位家长完成了高中学业（尽管他们都没有上过大学），而且三人都是白人。他们在一个重要方面存在差异：他们父母所拥有的财富水平截然不同（此处以净资产衡量，即金融资产和实物资产的总和减去债务）。莉兹的父母拥有的财富不到700美元（经通胀调整至2013年美元），这意味着莉兹在财富分配中处于底层。不过，由于她父母的年收入约为5万美元，她远未生活在贫困之中。玛丽的父母收入略高，约为7万美元，但财富也明显多于莉兹的父母：他们约6万美元的净资产使他们处于当时的全国中位数左右。与莉兹的父母不同，他们还是房主。霍华德很幸运，成长于富裕家庭。就收入而言并非如此，因为他父母的家庭收入仅约4万美元，但他们拥有相当多的财富。霍华德的父母净资产近25万美元，处于财富持有者前20%的水平。他们同样也拥有自己的房子。
