How much would it take for you to consider yourself wealthy? And what would you do to make a lot of money?
In other words, most of us desire bigger wallets, but how far are we willing to go to get them?
It turns out that many people are willing to investigate some shadier income opportunities, even though the good ol' hard work and determination are still winners.
The lure of a big wage can draw people down some very dark pathways, from the morally dubious to the outright criminal.
We polled more than 1000 regular people and discovered that many of them are prepared to take rather exceptional actions to increase their bank balance.
How people interpret wealth
How much extra time people would put in to make more money
How people might engage in unlawful activity to increase their income
What private moral standards they would violate
What more unusual strategies they'd employ to make more money
Wealth: What is it? How to describe wealth
Let's first think about what it means to be wealthy before we move on to what people will do to make ends meet.
How much money do you need to be wealthy, and what does wealth mean to the typical American?
Starting with wages.
We look at the median annual income in America to set the bottom end of the scale. According to the most recent statistics, that currently amounts to almost $50,000 per year.
If we multiply that by two, we get to $100,000, which has a beautiful, round feel.
And it turns out that the majority of people actually want to be at the "lower" end of the high-income spectrum.
The brackets between $100,000 and $200,000 and $200,000 and $300,000 received the most responses. These two ranges were selected by 55% of respondents as their starting point for wealth.
In contrast, just 18% of respondents indicated that they considered themselves wealthy if their annual income was $500,000 or above.
But it turns out that they are accurate.
You must have an annual income of more than $700,000 in order to be a member of the illustrious 1%. The bottom end of the scale, too? That won't even get you into the top 20% in some states.
For instance, to be in the top five in Massachusetts, you would need to make at least $171,600 annually.
However, there are significant differences between states. You might want to think about moving to Mississippi if you want your $100,000 yearly income to go as far as possible. To enter the top 20% there, you only need to make about $95,000 annually.
However, money is not the only or even the best indicator of wealth. It's obvious that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos don't precisely work for their paychecks each month.
The majority of financial experts concur that net worth is the most accurate indicator of wealth. It is the worth of all of your assets less the value of all of your liabilities.
Imagine that your whole portfolio of assets, including all of your things, is worth $50,000. Imagine that your debts, such as your mortgage and credit card debt, total $300,000. Right now, your net worth is $200,000.
Again, their assumptions didn't line up with reality when we asked our respondents what net worth they would need to consider themselves wealthy.
One-fourth of them said that having a modest net worth of $500,000–$999,999 was sufficient.
More over half of our respondents were in the $1 million–$2 million range when you include the additional 28% who chose this range.
Only 10% selected the top option, which was more over $5 million. However, they might be shocked to learn that having wealth requires considerably more than $5 million in net worth.
A household must have a net worth of $11 million or more to be in the top 1%. The midway point of wealth, however, the median net worth, is merely $121,411.
So, while it depends on your definition of wealth, being a member of the truly elite is considerably harder than most people realise.
Here are a few more thought-provoking observations about how wealth is perceived, followed with a knowledge quiz for you.
Which of the following jobs has the highest average salary?
aircraft pilots
Anesthesiologists
executive directors
Judges
Psychologists
Chief Executives would be the incorrect response if you responded like 64% of our respondents. The right response?
With an average yearly compensation of $261,730, anesthesiologists are really the ones who make the most money, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. CEOs "only" make $193,850 year.
What about the wealthiest neighbourhoods? Try to determine which state has the greatest median income for its citizens.
California
Colorado
Maryland
A new York
Oregon
Like 50% of our responders, you would be incorrect if you said New York. You would also be incorrect if you selected California, which is what 41% of people did.
Only 7% of people correctly identified Maryland as the correct answer. The median income for residents of the Old Line State was $86,738 in 2019.
So it's obvious that our perceptions of riches are biassed. But what will people do to fulfil their desire of wealth if they don't pursue a job in anesthesiology or relocate to Maryland?
What would you sacrifice? What people will do to make a lot of money
The part you've all been waiting for is now here: what will people do to make more money?
We began by asking respondents if they would be willing to work more hours in order to earn a higher wage.
77% of the respondents were willing to put in more hours to increase their income. However, interesting divisions between generations were discovered.
When compared to Gen Xers, 28% of baby boomers and 15% of Gen Xers said they weren't ready to work longer hours, respectively. Perhaps experience has taught us the value of finding a work-life balance.
Additionally, self-employed people were less inclined to desire to work late. 36% of them, as opposed to 22% of the total population, were unwilling to work greater hours.
The readiness of those who were willing to work longer hours declined as the suggested number of hours rose.
The majority of people were willing to work 45 hours or more per week, but once we reached 65 hours or more per week, opinions became evenly divided.
65% of respondents indicated they wouldn't be willing to work 85 hours or more per week in order to earn a higher pay.
But even so, that indicates that over a third of Americans would. To reach 85 hours in a 5-day workweek, you would need to put in at least 17 hours every day.
You would still need to put in more than 12 hours a day even if you worked seven days a week.
And despite the praise given to hustle culture by some, working for that long is unhealthy.
The World Health Organization reports that compared to persons who work a typical 35–40 hour week, people who work just 55 hours or more per week had a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher chance of dying from heart disease.
Additionally, they predicted that 745,000 people perished globally as a result of overwork. As a result, keep in mind that there are no pockets in a shroud if you're thinking about working overtime to make it enormous.
But what if it's another person's shroud? It's tempting to think that the majority of individuals would only be willing to kill or engage in other criminal activity in order to get a lot of money.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but over a third of our respondents admitted to breaking the law in order to increase their income.
This is when things got a little spooky.
committing crimes to make enormous money
31% of respondents admitted to breaking the law to increase their income. Men were also more eager than women (37% vs. 24% respectively).
Next, we asked our potential criminals what kinds of crimes they would be ready to perform in exchange for money:
77% of people say they'd be content to sell or make drugs like Walter White.
70% of people would steal.
66% of people would be willing to engage in illicit prostitution.
65% of people would think about threatening someone else.
65% of people would be willing to hurt someone else bodily.
64% of people would be willing to murder a stranger.
And now for the unexpected part:
Men were more likely to confess to breaking the law. But among potential criminals, women were more inclined to commit the particular offences.
Threatening another person was the only offence the men were more willing to commit. So it would seem that the ladies are the ones to watch out for when it comes to the less desirable aspects of earning more money.
We did uncover a piece of the puzzle for this. According to statistics, property crimes are more frequently committed by female felons. That clarifies the theft.
What about heinous crimes like murder? We're at a loss. But it's definitely worth contemplating.
Let's finally take another look at those figures.
When all responses are taken into account, 1 in 4 respondents were willing to sell or produce drugs in order to increase their income, and 1 in 5 were willing to kill someone.
It's a lot more than we anticipated and a terrifying glimpse into the evil powers that push us to seek out more money at any costs.
Let's now put crime aside and examine other things people will do to earn more money.
When the morality of money prevails, personal convictions are overruled
It was discovered that 41% of people would accept a job from an employer whose business violates their moral standards but is lawful in order to make a good living.
Therefore, for many, all it takes to put aside those personal morals is to show the cash. And once more, 47% of men compared to 36% of women were more vulnerable.
Here, too, some intriguing generational distinctions were made. Apparently, only 26% of Baby Boomers would violate their moral principles in order to increase their income.
In contrast, 48% of Millennials and Gen Z members would be willing to make the same sacrifice.
The individuals that were willing to violate their own code of ethics were then presented with some moral conundrums to see how strong their resolve was.
When we challenged them to back up their claims, this is what we discovered:
First to be abandoned were religious convictions; 82% were content to do so.
68% of people would cover up for an employer who harms the environment or takes advantage of workers abroad if it meant getting paid more.
The majority of respondents (more than a third) indicated that they would not violate their ethical code in the case of animal slaughter, making it the biggest ethical red line.
But this is where things become intriguing. Men were more inclined than women to put morality aside in each of the relevant situations.
This is in line with accepted science in a big way. Men's moral standards are lower than women's, according to studies, especially when there is competition.
Finally, we came up with a few more intriguing ideas for how people might become wealthy.
Sex, deception, and death are among additional unusual ways to get money.
Let's start with the 45% estimate for resume fabrication. We have a good feeling that our survey participants may have lied to us about it.
93% of people say they know someone who falsified on their résumé, according to a ResumeLab survey. Another study, this one from CareerBuilder, indicated that 75% of hiring managers have discovered resume lies.
This disparity may be the result of a phenomenon known as social desirability bias. Survey participants often downplay unfavourable features in this situation.
People are also unwilling to acknowledge that their minor "embellishments" are lies.
However, there may be a lot more potential killers out there if social desirability bias affected the other parts of our poll.
We also discovered that:
37% of people said they would create adult content to make more money.
28% of people would be eager to take a job with a high potential for harm or death.
We observed some intriguing age and gender disparities, as you might anticipate.
In contrast to 21% of women, 36% of males were willing to risk harm or death in order to pursue risky business.
Additionally, younger folks were considerably more inclined to let their inner porn star go. The willingness to create explicit content was higher among individuals who were 39 or younger (47%) than among those who were 55 or older (16%).
However, it's important to note that younger people have a greater demand for a bigger income. It is well known that elderly Americans tend to be wealthier than younger ones.
Conclusion
We discovered that the majority of individuals are unaware of the level of money required to become a member of the economic elite.
The bar for entering the American 1% is getting higher and higher due to the enormous wealth that they control.
And it appears that some people may tolerate exceedingly dubious behaviour in order to enter that elite group.
We were astonished by the number of responders who said they would hurt or kill someone to get more money. Or put their health in danger by working unreasonably long hours.
We can conclude by saying this. Don't try to become the Black Widow or pull a Breaking Bad.
However, you might want to think about going into anaesthesia!
Methodology
1063 Americans participated in the survey that produced the results that are being shown. They were questioned about their definitions of wealth and what they would be willing to do to have a high salary. These included yes-or-no inquiries, scale-based inquiries about the degree of agreement with a statement, inquiries that let respondents choose from a variety of possible responses, and inquiries that let respondents leave their answers open-ended.
Sources
Personal Income by State, Bureau of Economic Analysis
Women in Crime by N. Campaniello
"2019 Modern Wealth Survey," Charles Schwab Corporation.
legislative research service "Trends and Issues in the U.S. Income Distribution"
"Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2016 to 2019: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances," Federal Reserve Bulletin.
A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-Related Burden of Disease and Injury, Pega, F. et al., "Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000-2016."
"Average, Median, Top 1%, and All United States Net Worth Percentiles," by PK.
"Extending and evaluating a five element model of ethical and unethical negotiation tactics: introducing the SINS scale," by Robertson, Lewicki, and Donahue.
What does it take to be regarded as wealthy in your state? Less in some places, like West Virginia and Mississippi
"Lying on a Resume (2020 Study)" by B. Turczynski
Occupational Employment Statistics, "Economic News Release"
"Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics," U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
"2019 Median Household Income in the United States," United States Census Bureau.
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