With Just $10 "You're Wealthier Than 25% Of Americans"

Zero Hedge ^ | 10/21/15 | Tyler Durden

[smartyaz]

Last week Credit Suisse released its annual Global Wealth Report.

The big headline grabber was their analysis showing that the top 1% of people now own 50% of the world’s wealth.

That is true and rather astonishing.

However, the report had another finding that was even more astonishing and largely overlooked.

What they found was that, as a percentage of the world’s population, there are now more poor people in the United States and Europe than there are in China.

Here, they aren’t talking about income. They define poor as lacking ‘wealth’, i.e. taking into account assets and liabilities like cash and debt.

Credit Suisse estimates that half of the world has a net worth less than $3,210. And a large chunk of Americans and Europeans can’t make that cut because their net worth is negative.

That’s especially the case for young people these days, who graduate from university with an incredibly expensive degree and an average of $35,000 in student debt.

Of course, plenty of people are in debt up to their eyeballs in the Land of the Free, and not just student debt.

[rarestia]

With Just $10 "You're Wealthier Than 25% Of Americans"

INSANELY misleading title! If you have a $10 net worth, you're "wealthier" than 25% of Americans. That's a lot different than if you have a $10 bill in your wallet.

[smartyaz]

“If you’ve no debts and have $10 in your pocket you have more wealth than 25% of Americans. More than 25% of Americans have collectively that is.”

The thing is– not only did the government create the incentives, but they set the standard.

With a net worth of negative $60 trillion, US citizens are just following dutifully in the government’s footsteps.

Taking a fresh look at the country, you have to admit that when the vast majority of the wealth is held in the hands of the tiniest percent;

When a quarter of the population has negative net worth;
When the government has $18 trillion in debt and another $42 trillion in unfunded liabilities;

And when the central bank is borderline insolvent;

It becomes really hard to make the case that you’re still the richest country in the world.”

[Old Yeller]

Well done homObama

[ryan71]

A giant house of credit cards waiting to fall.

[BitWielder1]

So someone who owes a million on his fancy house and has $900,000 in the bank has negative net worth and is therefore poor?

[Don Corleone]

Taking a fresh look at the country, you have to admit that when the vast majority of the wealth is held in the hands of the tiniest percent;

This has been true since the days of the Pharaohs and probably even before that. More crapola from the media.

[sportutegrl]

This has been true since the days of the Pharaohs

I blame Joseph.

[Zuse]

There is similar disconnect when politicians talk about tax rates when they want to soak the rich. “Income” is not the same as “wealth” or “consumption.”

[bigbob]

Bernie!!!

[trad_anglican]

That is true and rather astonishing.

Maybe true but not astonishing. Most of us buy in to the 80/20 rule of thumb.

If you apply that rule to wealth, 80% of the world's wealth is owned by 20%. Now apply the 80/20 rule to the top 20% and you get 64% of the world's wealth owned by the top 4%. Apply the rule again and you get 51.2% of the world's wealth owned by .8% of the population.

[MichaelCorleone]

“INSANELY misleading title!”

I agree.

ZH should monitor their headlines more carefully lest their credibility gets tainted.

[RipSawyer]

The average American has never been anywhere near as wealthy as some people have attempted to claim and the situation for the working class has greatly deteriorated during my lifetime. I grew up literally walking behind a plow pulled by a mule. The only internal combustion engine on our forty acres was the one in the pickup truck my father drove to work and which served as our only passenger vehicle other than a wagon pulled by a mule. Yet when you consider that we owned that forty acres and the pathetic little house and the pickup truck and the animals free and clear, unencumbered by debt and my parents had more money in the bank, if you apply a proper inflation adjustment, than most Americans do today we were actually wealthy and didn’t know it compared to a huge percentage of Americans today.

A lot of Freepers are caught up in this notion that because people now have cell phones, computers and big TV sets that they are rich. It is a pathetic fantasy, people who have no net worth or a negative net worth and live in a rented dwelling are far from wealthy regardless of how many toys they have to play with.

[Lorianne]

If you have any net wealth even of the meager kind you are target no. 1.

A whole lot of people do not think you should have any net wealth at all, and if you do, you are a resource for future wealth grab. I really don’t think the powers that be look at people with assets any other way than how they can wrest that wealth away from them. Did I mention you really shouldn’t have it in the first place?

[Lorianne]

If he loses his job or source of income, yes, he is.

[central_va]

Free Traitors™ head’s explode if you mention tampering with income taxes or putting up tariffs.

[jjotto]

Credibility?

The guys that claim new cars all over the world are never actually bought by consumers?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-16/where-worlds-unsold-cars-go-die

[central_va]

Modern electronics and technology are actually making the average person/family poorer when compared to a family of 30 years ago. Between cable TV, cellular phone service, sky high costs for data access the monthly bills are way out of kilter with salary increases over the last 20-30 years.

30 years ago the average family/person did not have these bills - just a singular land line bill.

Technology is draining wealth from the proletariat.

[lurk]

If you have no debt and a $10 bill in your pocket, you’re wiser than 25% of Americans.

[bert]

the fallacy in the college debt is not evaluating the education as an asset that is multiples of the debt incurred to obtain it.