The New Year is nearly here — the ideal time to reflect on the year that is drawing to a close. Looking back on 2011, it is the state of the economy that looms large in retrospect, and how the financial system has affected the lifestyle of Americans on a daily basis. To compute the figures, and to really understand what our dollars have gained us in recent years, we turn to a money chart from www.xkcd.com, which was published online in November of this year and can be fact checked through sources including scholarly works or government publications (at https://xkcd.com/980/sources/).So what does this money chart tell us? Well, for one, the median household income, after taxes, is $39,170. That’s certainly not enough for a growing family to survive on in today’s world, by any means. It’s especially difficult for the majority, who earn less than $55,000 a year, while the elite 1 percent make six-digit-plus salaries to support families and very comfortable lifestyles. The total of all household incomes in the U.S. equaled to roughly $10.5 trillion this year. Here’s the breakdown: About 1 percent (about 1.6 million households) earns roughly $400,000 or more. Eight percent (9 million households) earn between $150,000 to $400,000 annually. Sixteen percent (18 million households) earn between $90,000 and $150,000 annually. Twenty-three percent (27 million households) earn between $55,000 and $90,000 annually. A whopping 50 percent (about 63 million households) earn less than $55,000 annually. (The required poverty line is listed at $22,350.)The majority is clearly in the bottom half, but it gets worse. According to xkcd.com, when it comes to state taxes, the poor get socked.“Unlike federal taxes, state taxes are regressive — the poor pay a higher percentage of their income than the rich. This is because sales taxes, a large component of state revenues, fall disproportionately on the poor.”The website calculated that $642 billion was paid in state taxes in 2011, while $2.2 trillion was paid in federal taxes, (after deductions and tax credits).The typical household net worth, when adjusted for inflation to 2011 dollars, meanwhile, for those 34 years of age or younger, in 1984 compared to 2009, was $11,680 versus $3,710, respectively. For those aged 35 to 44 years old the difference between 1984 and 2009 was $72,090 versus $40,140, respectively.Here’s more: The average individual health insurance annual premium is $5,430. The average annual amount a household spends on food is $5,650. The yearly cost of car ownership is $3,650. Annual tuition at a community college on average is $2,580; at an in-state university it’s $7,230. Treatment for cancer, including chemotherapy, costs $117,260.Here’s a real mind-bender: When adjusted for inflation to 2011 dollars, in 1965 a production worker’s average hourly wage was $19.61; in 2007 that wage had risen by 10 cents to $19.71. In 1965 the average CEO was paid for the same period roughly $490.31; by 2007 that CEO’s pay had jumped to $5,419.97. Those wages are not exactly on a parallel track.Here are some other facts: According to xkcd.com, the amount spent on U.S. foreign military aid was $11 billion, with $5.8 billion going to Afghanistan, $2.41 billion going to Israel, $1.32 billion going to Egypt and $5. 8 billion going to “other.” Another $11 billion in U.S. foreign humanitarian and economic aid was also spent, going to Iraq, Afghanistan, the West Bank, Gaza, Africa and “other.”Then there is the cost of war itself; the Korean War cost $341 billion; the Vietnam War cost $738 billion; the Persian Gulf War cost $102 billion; the War in Afghanistan cost $321 billion; and the Iraq War cost $784 billion. The government has a track record of heavy spending when it comes to military operations, but that fits in with this country’s global role as peace-keeper and protector of democracy. But that role comes at a price (not to mention the sacrifices made by those serving this great nation).What does all of this mean? Well, certainly it’s interesting data and information we can all take with us as we go about our daily lives and make decisions for our families and our communities. But it also gives us something more — it gives us perspective. It’s an amazing gift to be able to understand what’s going on in the world around you from as many different standpoints as possible. Having a comprehensive understanding of how this country operates, and where we stand as individuals in the larger picture, is important. If this has helped to do that in some way, then mission accomplished.
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Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I was a library kid. I walked to the library after school,” she said.
For Sher, the library is as much about the people as it about the books.
“Part of the job I love so much is that running the library is such a community,” she said.
She treasures the relationships she has built, whether recommending books, celebrating accomplishments or helping patrons through difficult times.
“I am thankful that our community is so supportive of the library, unlike what is happening in some other places where librarians are villainized,” Sher said.
Sher takes pride in the Hunt Library’s reputation for being “open and welcoming to everyone. People come in and see things and get pulled into things they weren’t expecting. Our library is seen as a positive force.”
Sher came to Falls Village after being awarded a fellowship at Adamah Farm, then a program of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. She worked at pickling, in the greenhouse and later in the development office. She also worked as a nanny.
At the same time, “I was in the library all the time,” she recalled. “I’m a voracious reader. The library is where I met a lot of my first friends in Falls Village.”
She became assistant librarian at Hunt and worked in that position for almost a decade before becoming the executive director four years ago.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino
Sher met her husband, Adam, while working at Adamah. They had their wedding there in 2012. He now emcees many events which she co-organizes with the Falls Village Recreation Commission.
Sher and her family live near the library.
“It’s an easy commute,” she said with a smile. “My kids run back and forth. I can go home to walk the dog if I need to.”
“My kids have grown up here.” Her oldest son, Eli, “loves volunteering. He helps with Augustfest and often helps set up chairs for ArtWall gatherings.” Her younger son, Noah, is often at events and was eager to taste cookies at last year’s holiday cookie swap.
When she is not at the library, Sher likes to hike with her family. Bella, their Portuguese water dog, often accompanies them.
Sher enjoys seeking out people to offer events at the library.
“I do a lot of different community programming. It is one of my favorite parts of the job.”
Augustfest, featuring food, music and an auction, is the library’s biggest fundraiser.
“This summer we had a record 152 attendees, which was pretty incredible.”
Yonah Sadeh, a filmmaker from Falls Village, inaugurated the VideoWall this year, Sher explained.
“I’ve known Yonah since he was two. It’s wonderful to work with him as an adult.”
The VideoWall complements the library’s ArtWall, which showcases a new artist each month. Sher praised the ArtWall committee for its work and highlighted December’s popular “12x12 Show,” featuring works by local artists, each measuring 12 by 12 inches and priced at $150.
Sher added that some of the artists who exhibit at the ArtWall offer workshops to students at Kellogg School, next door to the library. In September, artist Danielle Mailer worked with the children. Vincent Inconiglios taught a class last November.
Being next to the school, said Sher, is a great advantage.
“Kids are coming after school, to see friends, work on projects, find a great book. Kids that love the library end up using the library as grownups.”
This past year, in partnership with Adamah, the library and school created a garden, with excess produce made available at The Center on Main.
This year is Sher’s second year participating in the Troutbeck Symposium in Amenia with James King, director of the library at Salisbury School. The Troutbeck Symposium is “a gathering of a year of student historical inquiry across the region” in which students “uncover stories that have been overlooked, forgotten, or never recorded.”
Last year, Sher and King began a project with a group of students researching Irish immigrants in Falls Village, exploring ancestry and creating small magazines about their findings.
They continued this year, visiting St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery on Dublin Road, cleaning seven gravestones and even righting one with the help of stonemason and gravestone restoration expert Karl Munson. Paul Kozeazny, a representative of the Catholic archdiocese, helped secure access to the site.
A film documenting their activities will be shown at the symposium in spring 2027.
A full schedule of programs and events, ranging from tech help to ceramic mug-making, can be found on the library’s website.
Despite spending her days surrounded by books, and a busy schedule of programming, Sher still loves to settle in with a book at home.
For more information on library programs and events, visit huntlibrary.org
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Touré was born in northern Mali in 1981. His father, the renowned guitarist Ali Farka Touré, came from a family of soldiers and wanted his son to join the army. The younger Touré studied drums and the calabash and practiced guitar in secret. He earned his father’s blessing to pursue music shortly before Ali died in 2006, and they played two tracks together on Vieux’s debut album.
Touré is known for his deft, polyrhythmic playing, and his songs grow out of riffs that repeat and layer to hypnotic effect. He draws on rock, blues, Latin music and various African traditions. This distinctive blend builds on his father’s work adapting the sonic traditions of Mali’s arid north to the guitar.
Vieux’s album “Mon Pays” (“My Country,” 2013) honored Mali’s culture after Tuareg separatists and extremist groups seized the north in 2012. “Samba” (2017) was recorded before about 50 listeners in Woodstock, New York. In 2022 came “Les Racines” (“The Roots”), a return to his father’s desert blues, and “Ali,” on which he and the trio Khruangbin reworked eight of the elder Touré’s songs.
Touré leads the Ali Farka Touré Foundation, which focuses on cultural and educational work in Mali. Around the anniversary of Ali’s death, it holds a festival in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Bamako has been under blockade for much of the past year, besieged by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Against this backdrop, Touré continues to carry the music of Mali to audiences abroad.
At the Nov. 5 concert, Touré’s desert blues will share the bill with Gnawa, the music LanGus plays, which developed in Morocco among West Africans who were brought north across the desert as enslaved people. Gnawa is religious music traditionally performed at all-night healing ceremonies called lila, intended to carry participants into trance.
Samir LanGusProvided
LanGus was born and raised outside Agadir, Morocco, and began learning Gnawa from its masters at age 8. He plays the sintir, a three-stringed bass lute made of wood and camel skin. The player strikes a low string with the thumb to create a deep, resonant pulse. Iron castanets clatter over the sintir’s bass line, and vocalists trade call-and-response refrains.
LanGus infuses the tradition with jazz and improvisation. In New York, he founded the ensemble Innov Gnawa. His first solo album, “Gnawa Love,” came out in February.
Touré and LanGus’s Nov. 5 concert is one of the last public events at Race Brook Lodge, which is for sale and ended full-service operations at the end of 2025. The lodge’s final scheduled event, on Nov. 6, is an evening of Rumi’s poetry with translator and vocalist Haleh Liza Gafori, cellist Isabel Castellvi and ceremonial bard James Bird.
For tickets, visit rblodge.com.
James FitzGerald is a student at Yale Law School, where he focuses on ecological restoration and international environmental cooperation. He splits his time between Lakeville and New Haven.
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