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A new analysis of how the world’s wealth is distributed
- pcurve 10y ago750K only gets you to top 1%?
- GuiA 10y agoThe really wealthy people are just really wealthy, beyond what most of us here can probably conceive of. Even if you strike it big in Silicon Valley and make $10M-$50M from your startup, you're still nowhere near all the Chinese real estate magnates, Saudi oil magnates, the people whose family fortune has been accumulating for the past hundred years or so, etc. I was actually surprised to find that the net worth of many celebrities that most of us imagine as really wealthy is not all that much compared to the aforementioned. For instance, let's pick Benedict Cumberbatch, an actor who just had the lead role in a Marvel movie being shown around the world that a lot of people would immediately recognize on the street - a cursory internet search indicates his net worth is about $20M. Not a crazy amount by any means.
- oblio 10y agoThe real question is: does it really matter? I'd guess that around 5-10 million is when you can afford a nice house anywhere you want (I'm not talking about palaces with servants). You can have several holidays per year doing what you want, where you want it. Etc.
- GuiA 10y agoOh I wasn't trying to answer the "does it really matter" question, just attempting to offer perspective on the OP's surprise.
- NhanH 10y agoI'm a bit confused after reading your post, especially your first paragraph. So no sarcasm intended here, just curiosity. > you're still nowhere near all the Chinese real estate magnates, Saudi oil magnates, the people whose family fortune has been accumulating for the past hundred years or so, etc. Are you implying those people would be richer than the publicly wealthy we know of (the Walton family, Gates, Buffet etc.)? If that is not the case, I don't think "inconceivable" is the word I would use in this case..
- siddboots 10y agoIt's surprising not because of how rich it makes the richest, but because of how many rich people it implies. In order for that to be true, 75 million people out there make $750k or more.
- joss82 10y agoIt's not revenue, it's wealth. s/make/have
- roel_v 10y agoJust having bought a house in a few US states 25 years ago, and having serviced the mortgage on it since then, puts you in that bracket. There many, many electricians and plumbers (just to name some not particularly high paying jobs) out there who have a net worth of 750k+ around retirement age.
- hkmurakami 10y agoWell what you mention about ultrawealthy individuals doesn't really matter since one billionaire is still only one person. In terms of setting the bar for where the 1% threshold is, it wouldn't make a difference if someone has $1B or $10M. So what matters in the quantity of people who own more than $750K in assets, rather than exactly how much each of those people own. >Cumberbatch It says he made $2.6M from Dr. Strange. His paydays from movies are on an upward trajectory, so he may crack the $5m/film mark in a few years. Also, I assume this is ordinary income, which is really tax disadvantaged, especially since I imagine actors are considered self employed (like professional golfers, for instance), which probably means that they pay both sides of the payroll tax. http://networthtomb.com/benedict-cumberbatch-net-worth-endorsement-actor/ http://networthtomb.com/benedict-cumberbatch-net-worth-endor... But these very visible people can wield tremendous influence. The three pillars are power, money, and influence, and you can trade one for the others. Celebrities may not be as powerful as governors or as wealthy as tech billionaires, but their voice often travels much farther than their counterparts.
- curun1r 10y ago> especially since I imagine actors are considered self employed (like professional golfers, for instance) At least actors don't have to pay state taxes in each state where they "play" like athletes do. Athletes, while often highly paid, really get screwed in just about every way come tax time.
- arvinsim 10y agoI guess anonymity is also a luxury that the super wealthy can easily afford.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago>$20M. Not a crazy amount by any means. It would take a little over 300 years to earn that much at my current annual income.
- cm2187 10y agoGlobally. That mostly illustrate that the size of the population in developing countries is an order of magnitude larger than in developed countries. The number is kind of meaningless. Percentiles makes more sense within a country. The only thing I found for the us is the article bellow which puts the threshold at $8.4 millions... http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-top-1-by-wealth-not-income/?_r=0 http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-t...
- hkmurakami 10y agoWell parent is surprised that $750k only gets you 1%, despite the large population of developing nations -- the opposite of what you are supporting.
- nugget 10y ago> In a tangent, Grübel [former CEO of US and Credit Suisse] gave his thoughts on what makes a man rich: "rich is a man when he goes to bed in a carefree manner and wakes up without care." He is then asked if, by that definition, a billionaire is rich to which he replied: "No. Money has little to do with wealth. The real rich are carefree. Those who are healthy, are not dependent. The greatest wealth is independence."
- adrianN 10y agoMoney has little to do with wealth once you have enough. I doubt that there are many wage slaves that are rich according to that definition.
- bjelkeman-again 10y agoIf I didn't have something to care for then my life would feel pretty pointless. But yes money to a certain level allows you to chose what you care for. That is worth a lot.
- siberianbear 10y agoI can attest to this. I made a small fortune in Silicon Valley and retired at age 40. Every day, I'm thankful that I have my health and a full day to do whatever I want. I don't know what I'd do with the investment income from the next level of wealth. The conspicuous consumption (for instance) of flying by timeshare on a private jet instead of on a regular scheduled flight would just attract problems in my life. People can smell money from a mile away if you don't keep your head down. I am at Grübel's level of rich. I am healthy, have no dependents and own my own time. I enjoy taking a walk in the park on a Tuesday afternoon because I want to. The afternoon meetings I had to attend in Silicon Valley were the worst. I saw a sign once that said, "My hope is to die in a staff meeting: that way, the transition from life to death will be subtle." I understood the sentiment 100%. Even by Silicon Valley terms, I had a great income and a good career. But I will never return to it.
- oh_sigh 10y agoThink of all the people who have that much money simply tied up in their house, because they happened to live in an area that experienced a housing boom after they bought.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jasonkester 10y agothe world’s households owned property and net financial assets worth almost $256trn in mid-2016. That is about 3.4 times the world’s annual GDP. If this wealth were divided equally it would come to $52,819 per adult. I can understand why it's tempting to perform this calculation (you've got two numbers, may as well divide them), but I kind of wish people would stop doing so then trying to draw conclusions about the result. Especially if they work for an organization that calls itself "The Economist", which implies that the author knows something about Economics. Because all it serves to do is convince people who don't understand how economies work that there is in fact some big fixed pile of "wealth" out there, and that all those rich people have hoarded it already and are now sitting on it, preventing anybody else from having any of it. ... which is, of course, silly. And the author should know that.
- jokoon 10y agoPeople will always think about keeping their own sweet comfort before anything else in the world. And then, they will try to get some more if they can. Meanwhile, for some weird reason, they won't really bother themselves with all the poverty in the world, because there is simply nothing relevant enough they can do about it. It's called individualism. It's not a matter of rich people hoarding wealth, it's just that it's culturally natural to behave that way. Nobody blames rich people, it's just that everybody is jealous. There is nobody else to blame than every each of us, collectively.
- kashkhan 10y agoSo wealth is meaningless and the rich hoarding tons of it aren't materially better off than the homeless sleeping in your doorway? If there isn't a single limited pile of wealth, then why can't we helicopter drop on everyone millions of dollars, and raise all boats to American lifestyle level.
- jasonkester 10y agoIf it really isn't limited then why don't we give everyone a million dollars. In effect, we have. I work, earn a dollar and put it in the bank... who lends it to a company who pays it to somebody else... who puts it in the bank... There's orders of magnitude less pie to go around than has in fact gone around. That's essentially the basis for the world economy.
- dangero 10y agoIt includes a surprising number of Americans (over 21m), whose debts outweigh their assets. Coincidentally there are 20.5 million college students in the US. That 21 million number actually seems small to me just from college students and grads alone, let alone other sources. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372
- nraynaud 10y agoOnce I ran my salary in a statistical tool, I was in the 8% highest salary of the country. That felt strange, I live in a rented 3 bedroom apartment, no car, no savings.
- zhengiszen 10y agoIf there was one constant in the human history it got to be injustice. What the current economical system does is just organise the injustice through a just livable repartition of a very small part of the wealth.
- jokoon 10y agoI'm a poor moocher, on long term unemployment (for reasons I won't talk about here), and honestly, life could be much worse if I was not living in a developed country. That's how I must view things if I don't want to die from desperation.
- robotresearcher 10y agoShared between us, we can afford to keep you ticking over. Good luck to you. Don't waste it. I grew up poor on welfare, and I will never forget what it was like, nor will I forget the generosity of the society that educated me and kept me in food and shelter. Thank you all for taking care of me and my sister when we were children. Now I'm doing OK. I teach your college kids and make robots a little better. I'll pay far more in tax than I ever cost. I'm proud to pay those taxes and vote to support the next generation of people who need a little help.
- antisthenes 10y ago> I'll pay far more in tax than I ever cost. Not if you end up living a very long time.
- robotresearcher 10y agoWell, I've paid several times more than my welfare and education cost already so I'm square. From now on I'm like anyone else. Could be up, could be down. But in this great civilization, we share the risk.
- jokoon 10y agoSo are you saying we should "unplug" people who are too old, so that young people can have better lives?
- antisthenes 10y agoAmong other things, yes.
- benevol 10y agoThe thing is, there should be no pyramid.
- antisthenes 10y agoI can't believe The Economist of all things published this garbage. The article doesn't even mention if the numbers are PPP adjusted, how the wealth was measured and how much of the wealth is simply sitting in the bank account versus being invested. Is this for real?
- jgalt212 10y agoTrump could possibly be the great equalizer. Under him, higher interest rates will crush global property values (which are disproportionately held by the ultra wealthy). Global warming, which he doesn't plan to do much about, will be a great threat to coastal real estate (also controlled by the global wealthy).