Posted on 10/14/2015 9:09:09 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
The richest 1% of the world’s population now owns 50% of its total wealth, according to a report by Credit Suisse.
Worldwide, there are 34 million people who have a U.S. dollar net worth of at least $1 million, or 0.7% of the global adult population, and they account for 45% of global wealth. If you extend the bracket to include those with less than $1 million, but still within the top 1%, then total wealth crosses the magic 50% line.
Within the top 1% is there is a much more elite club: the 0.36 percenters. These are adults with a net worth of more than $50 million, and there’s just 123,800 of them in the world.
At the base of the global wealth pyramid are those with a net worth of less than $10,000, who account for a massive 71% of the world’s adult population.
In total, the report estimates that global households have amassed $250 trillion (an amount equal to 100x JP Morgan’s assets).
Credit Suisse says wealth inequality was actually falling before the financial crisis but has increased every year since 2008. The U.S. created 903 new millionaires between the 2014 and 2015 report, while median wealth has stagnated. Globally the number of millionaires fell, though the strength of the U.S. dollar is cited as the biggest contributing factor to that statistic.
Has it ever been any different? Go back 1000 years in Europe. Serfs, bound to their lords made up 99% of the population. All of the wealth was held by the nobility or the church.
At the time of the American Revolution most of the wealth was held by a few New England and NY merchants and a few big southern plantation owners. Most of the population, slave or free lived in squalor.
Go back 100 years ago. Most average citizens were workers in cities or independent farmers living hand to mouth. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy industrialists — Rockefeller, JP Morgan for example. In the cities and towns of the U.S. the local factory owner, mill owner, or merchant might have some wealth but the average worker or farmer still lived hand to mouth though at a higher standard than at the time of the Revolution.
Today’s socialists refuse to admit that in the modern day developed world the poorest people enjoy a lifestyle the wealthiest man in the world 100 years ago could not access. Thanks to technology poor people live in homes with running water, heat, cooling, electricity, television, computers, the Internet. They have immediate access to life extending medical care that did not exist in 1915. They carry digital phones enabling them to communicate to 3 to 4 billion individual around the planet at virtually no cost. They can take advantage of free education both in the schools or accessible directly through the Internet. They have access to transportation systems that can take them to almost any place on the planet within 2 days. Most in the U.S. own at least one automobile. They have a multitude of life choices inconceivable to the poorest and wealthiest people a century ago. Plus the option of not working and allowing society to provide for basic needs at a level unimaginable by the poor at any other time in history. The welfare recipient paying for her groceries with a government provided debit card can buy grapes from Chile, bananas from Central America, beef from Argentina while taking on a government provided smartphone that has more computing power than existed on the planet 100 years ago.
Socialists are winning the political wars by promoting class envy at a time when the poor people of the United States enjoy a lifestyle unimaginable by 90 % of the people on the planet today. The real question for the poor in the U.S. is would you prefer to live at your station in life anywhere else in the world? Given how the world’s poor are streaming into the country, and the complaining poor are not emigrating, the answer is obvious.
So... anyone who has a million bucks is included?
From what I read these days, that’s far more than one percent....
http://www.forbes.com/sites/objectivist/2011/06/14/when-it-comes-to-wealth-creation-there-is-no-pie/
Government creates NO wealth without entrepreneurs, employers, manufacturers and the host of other free market businesses that make things, provide services, and employ people.
Even its specious claims of “you didn’t build that (without help from government)” is total BS because any ‘help’ they provide is, in the end, paid for by the producers (including business).
Government’s ‘wealth’ comes solely from taxation, fees and fines and MASSIVE borrowing on the backs of producers. It is a cancer on progress, IMO.
If you make more than $47,000 US dollars, you are in the top 1%. Why omit this info from this story? Also, if you include the top 2%, you include US welfare recipients!
relax..people don’t live forever, even rich ones. history has shown that he mega rich families, heirs of vast amounts of wealth, don’t keep it for long - it reverts back to the masses, the producers.
Like, the U.S. has most of the world's corporate stock (from Can the U.S. Remain An International Financial Center?):
--and pay all the bills: Top 1% pay nearly half of federal income taxes - CNBC.com. That reminds me, why is it that the left has a problem w/ the 1% having half the wealth, but no problem w/ the 1% paying half the taxes...
Yikes: Retailers Sell Off Hard; Indexes Add Distribution!! This is the problem w/ oversleeping I guess, but futures see metals up 1.44% even while stock futures go -0.7%. On top of that, it's Claims/CPI day:
8:30 AM Continuing Claims
8:30 AM Initial Claims
8:30 AM Continuing Claims
8:30 AM CPI
8:30 AM Core CPI
8:30 AM Empire Manufacturing
10:00 AM Philadelphia Fed
10:30 AM Natural Gas Inventories
11:00 AM Crude Inventories
11:00 AM Treasury Budget
11:00 AM Crude Inventories
In other news....
Dems Make Strong Case For Reining Capitalism In - William Saletan, Slate
Sen. Sanders Doesn't Understand Own 'Socialism' - Kevin Williamson, NR
Divide Between Pro-Market, Pro-Business - David Boaz, Washington Times
Making a Case For Opening Borders to Immigrants - Bryan Caplan, Time
The Sources of Slower Growth Are Closer to Home - Jeffrey Tucker, FEE
Three Economists That Are Worthy Of a Nobel - Noah Smith, Bloomberg
Deflation Fears Creep Into Investor Mindset - John Shmuel, National Post
There's No Better Time to Buy Commodities - Simon Constable, U.S. News
The Democratic Presidential Candidates Declared War on Unfettered Capitalism... please point me to the place where capitalism is unfettered because it’s where I want to be?
Maybe they should try Capitalism since Socialism has been a disaster for the average person everywhere from Europe to Asia to Africa.
What is the upcoming ‘key holiday shopping season’? The article won’t name it or reference a date.
And pays MUCH more than half the taxes.
Some how that always puzzled me too. That and all the problems that occurred wherever y laborism ran rampant too.
If they are comparing everything in terms of the U.S. dollar, that is not a fair comparison. A million dollars doesn’t take you very far in parts of this country, but would do quite well in places with a low cost of living.
In the beginning, the USA had strong protectionist policies and unfettered business and trade within the USA between the states(inter state commerce) and territories. This was what built a great nation. The 16th amendment and reducing tariffs to nil is what did us in, all to make international corporations rich.
That had me wondering too. (from here):
the National Retail Institute. Nationally, jewelry stores report that 23.8 percent of their annual sales occur during December and 9.2 percent during November
There is something wrong with this economy if it crashes because I and millions like me choose not purchase unneeded and unwanted goods and services.
I suspect it has to do with the unbelievable pace of the modern economy. Choices to produce, ship and offer for sale a good or service are little more than guesses about which particular ones will be successful. These items are produced and marketed so quickly these days....well, guess wrong and you're burdened with non-performing overhead costs, stuck with unsold inventory and your mailbox or inbox is full of due bills and host of fed/state/local taxes.
Whereas a hundred or more years ago, my decision to wait another year or two before I buy that icebox or radio was allowed for in the business model of Sears or the local merchant.
Wait a sec. you said we started with high import taxes and then they went down. What we're actually seeing is that we started with nothing and now we're rich. If that's "did us in" that we should "do us in" more often.
The Walton family is the richest family in the United States and one of the richest in the world. They are heirs to the Walmart fortune and the company’s largest shareholders, with over fifty percent ownership of stock in the retail giant.
Sam Walton and his brother Bud opened their first Walmart discount store in 1962. Today three family members serve on Walmart’s board of directors; Rob is the chair, and sits on the board with his brother Jim and his son-in-law, Greg Penner.
The six Waltons on Forbes’ list of wealthiest Americans have a net worth of $144.7 billion. This fiscal year three Waltons—Rob, Jim, and Alice (and the various entities that they control)—will receive an estimated $3.1 billion in Walmart dividends from their majority stake in the company.
The Waltons aren’t just the face of the 1%; they’re the face of the 0.000001%. The Waltons have more wealth than 42% of American families combined.
Weird. People complain saying Americans don't save enough, and then they complain saying Americans save too much.
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