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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu |
2003.09.21 (Judy Siegel, The Jerusalem Post, p. 3) – The average net worth of American Jews is three times that of the general population and that of conservative Protestants is half of the average, according to a new national study by Ohio State University on religious affiliation and wealth.
Mainline Protestants and Catholics fall in between and are about the same as the general population average in terms of overall wealth.
The Ohio State sociologists also found that people who attend religious services regularly build more wealth than those who don't.
Lisa Keister, author of the study and associate professor of sociology at OSU, maintained that the religious beliefs children learn in their families translate into educational attainment, adult occupations, financial literacy, social connections, and other factors that influence level of wealth.
"The effect of religion is robust, even after taking into account inheritances, levels of education, and other factors affecting wealth that may be associated with particular religious denominations," she wrote in the September issue of the journal Social Forces.
"Religion is an important factor in wealth accumulation, a factor that hasn't received a lot of attention," Keister said. "The results suggest people draw on the tools they learn from religion to develop strategies for saving, investing, and spending, and those tools may be different in various faiths."
… Overall, the median net worth of American Jews in the survey was $150,890, more than three times the median for the entire sample ($48,200). The median net worth for conservative Protestants (which included Baptists, J-----h's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Christian Scientists, among others) was $26200. The median net worth of mainstream Protestants (including Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Unitarians and others) and Catholics were similar to each other and about the average for the whole sample.
While some may say the results confirm religious stereotypes, such as the contention that Jewish people are greedy and acquisitive, Keister strongly disagreed. "What I'm finding is that families have a powerful influence on how people learn to save, and religion is often an important part of family life," Keister said. "The things children are taught in Jewish homes are very different than those that are taught in conservative Protestant homes."
But it wasn’t iust the particular religious affiliation that had an impact on wealth accumulation. The study found that people who regularly attend religious services tend to be more wealthy. "It seems strange – why should it matter whether you go to church in terms of building wealth?" Keister said. "But going to religious services may be another opportunity, especially for Jews, to be indoctrinated with beliefs that help build wealth. Also, it is a social network issue – a church or synagogue can be a good place to meet people with investment tips or money to loan for a new business."
Religious teachings of different faiths may influence spending and saving strategies in a variety of ways, according to Keister. For example, conservative Protestants often emphasize prayer and trust in God, which may reduce their desire to invest. Conservative Protestants also look forward to the rewards of the afterlife and don't promote acquiring wealth as a good for this life. Jews, on the other hand, don't have a strong orientation to the afterlife, she claimed, but encourage pursuits that will lead to wealth accumulation, such as high-income careers and investing.
In the study, Keister examined how religious affiliation related to some typical financial trajectories for Americans. For example, only 1 percent of Jews remained asset poor throughout life, compared to 15% of conservative Protestants, 9% of mainline Protestants and 7% of Catholics…
"'Religion keeps coming up in any model you run to explain wealth," she said. "It's something you can't ignore, but there's been little effort to explain the connection between religion and wealth accumulation." …"
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