Who did ‘Puja’? Who got ‘Lakshmi’?
Contributed By - Sat Parashar, PhD
November 2018 was the month of ‘Deepawali’- The Festival of Lights. For many people of Indian ancestry, ‘Deepawali’ is also the day of ‘Lakshmi Puja’ (Worshiping the Goddess of Wealth and Income). Many of us, whether we were in India or now in US, have been doing ‘Lakshmi Puja’, year after year. But who got ‘Lakshmi’ (wealth and income) in USA. Let’s take a look at the graph-I. This graph shows that over the 2014–16 period, the average pretax annual income of US households was $70,448 (shown by doted vertical line). The average pretax income for Asians (including people of Indian ancestry) was $93,390.
Graph-I
(Source: Reginald A Noel, Race, Economics, And Social Status, Spotlight on Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May, 2018)
The Secret Revealed
The secret of average pretax income of Asians (including people of Indian ancestry) has been revealed by statistics of their education, occupation and joint family system.
The graph-II shows that over the 2014–16 period, approximately 70 percent of Asian (including people of Indian ancestry) households had a member with a Bachelor's degree or higher. That shows that in addition to ‘Lakshmi Puja’, these people of Indian ancestry, in vernacular, do ‘Saraswati Puja’ (Worshiping Goddess of Education and Intellect) also.
Graph-II
The graph-III shows that in 2014, 51 percent of Asians worked in management, professional, and related occupations—the highest paying major occupational category. There has been already enough evidence to support highly positive correlation between education, income and wealth (Please see Scott A Wolla and Jessica Sulivan’s ‘Education, Income, Wealth’ in Page One Economics of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, January 2017). The higher educational attainments of people of Indian ancestry, as noted above, explain their high paying occupations.
Graph-III
(Source: Educational attainment and occupation groups by race and ethnicity in 2014, TED: The Economics Daily, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 18, 2015)
The joint family is another factor that works for adding income and wealth for people of Indian ancestry in USA. Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh’s book, ‘The Other One Percent- Indians in America’ (Oxford, 2016) pointed out that as Indian norms placed a high value on marriage, divorce is less common in this community, so the poverty that comes with single-parent households is diminished. In U.S., where just 63 percent of children live with two parents, 92 percent of children of the households of people of Indian ancestry still live with two parents. It is equally well known that almost half of migrants, born in India, have arrived in USA on family visa. The joint family, as obvious, by simply spreading fixed household cost over all members, reduces per person living costs, and provides a wide variety of social and psychological (net) benefits. The People of Indian ancestry have, traditionally, valued and respected their ‘mata-pita and guru’ (mother, father and teacher), that signified family and education.
The Light That It Shines
The light that it shines for everyone, irrespective of race, color, creed and gender, is that anyone desirous of wealth and income must focus on education and family - kind cooperation, collaboration and cohesion.
(Source: Reginald A Noel, Race, Economics, And Social Status, Spotlight on Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May, 2018)
About the author:
Sat Parashar, former Director, IIM Indore, India, is currently based in Glendale, AZ. His specialization is Economy and Finance. He has held positions including Chair Professor of Finance, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India; Head, Center for Banking at Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, Bahrain; Head of Research and Studies, Emirates Institute of Banking and Financial Studies, United Arab Emirates.
He is currently adjunct faculty at Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, CA, teaching Money and Banking.