How do you capture a country with 300 million independently minded and moving pieces?

That’s the question that this TIME magazine article tries to answer with great information and data illustrations. In a nation becoming increasingly polarized by categorization into blue and red states, TIME thinks that the overall view of the nation is actually purple — a mix of both “red” and “blue” ideals.

The very idea of redistributing wealth can feel un-American in the land of Horatio Alger, until you look closely at how it’s spread now. Half of us earn less than $30,000 a year, 90% less than $100,000. To get an idea of how we value our values, Howard Stern earns every 24 seconds what takes a cop or a teacher about a week. Parents hoping to persuade their children to buckle down in school might try this: as an adult, the more you know the less you’ll have to work. Those with a high school degree or less spend far more of their time on the job than those with a college degree or beyond.

Check out the infographics that accompany the article.

• Where We Live
• What We Believe
• Denomination Nation
• Who We Are

In terms of broad generalizations, you can’t get much more clear and concise than those graphics.

You might also be interested in reading How We Spend Our Leisure Time and What America Buys And Why (also from the same TIME Special Report that the graphics above are from).