University of Wisconsin–Madison

The Road to Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide is Hollowing Out America's Middle Class

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2017
Level Other Boards and Agencies
State(s) All States
Policy Areas Civil Rights, Economic Justice
In their 2016 report, The Ever-Growing Gap: Without Change, African American and Latino Families Won’t Match White Wealth for Centuries, the Institute for Policy Studies showed that if current trends continue, it will take 228 years for the average Black family to reach the level of wealth White families own today. For the average Latino family, matching the wealth of White families will take 84 years. In this report, the authors look at the racial wealth divide at the median over the next four and eight years, as well as to 2043, when the country’s population is predicted to become majority non-white. They also look to wealth rather than income to reconsider what it means to be middle class. In finding an ever-accelerating gap, the authors consider what it means for the American middle class and they explore what policy interventions could reverse the trends we see today. The authors find that without a serious change in course, the country is heading towards a racial and economic apartheid state.

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