Richest Two Percent of People Own More than Half the World
December 5th, 2006Via: Reuters:
Two percent of adults have more than half of the world’s wealth, including property and financial assets, according to a study by the U.N. development research institute published on Tuesday.
While global income is distributed unequally, the spread of wealth is even more skewed, the study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the U.N. University said.
“Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 percent of total world wealth,” the survey showed.
The Helsinki-based institute said its study was the first global research on the topic, for which there is only limited data.
“We’ve estimated that the richest 2 percent of adults own more than half of global wealth, while the bottom half own 1 percent,” said institute director Anthony Shorrocks.
He likened the situation to that where, in a group of 10 people, one person has $99, while the remaining nine share $1.
“If you think income has been distributed unequally, wealth has been distributed even more unequally,” Shorrocks said.
According to the study, in 2000 a couple needed capital of $1 million to be among the top 1 percent on the wealth list — the richest 37 million people in the world.
More than one in every two of those people lives in the United States or Japan.
And it found that net assets of $2,200 per adult would put a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution.
NET WORTH TO BE IN TOP 1%: $4,687,071
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Total Net Worth in U.S.: $42.3892 trillion ($42,389,200,000,000)
Top 1% controls: 32.7%
US Population: 295,734,134
Therefore:
Top 1% is 2,957,341 people
Combined Net Worth: $13,861,268,400,000
Networth each: $4,687,071
Note: This is US only, not global numbers. Anyone have those?
http://tinyurl.com/3oqhy
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
George
[…] This is what happens when Machine induced psycopathy takes over. Peoples’ lives become absorbed with creating (and chasing) hideous grotesqueries rather than doing anything truly constructive or beneficial. The Myth of the Machine gets people to believe that what they’re doing is good, true and beautiful, even as they carry out the bidding of the most diabolical criminals on the planet. To what end? It’s simple. The technologies of death and control have created a world in which 2% of people own more than half of the wealth. There’s not much room at the top of the pyramid, after all. I wonder if this weapon has a mode that hasn’t been publicized yet. A mode similar to what the aliens had in the War of the Worlds films. The beam hits you and all that’s left is a puff of ash. But not to fear, children. This weapon just induces excruciating, unimaginable pain. […]